All In
by lolitarun
Summary: FutureFic!  Blaine and Kurt are ready to become parents.  But what happens when they're given a child that they aren't sure they can handle?
1. Emergency

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So this is what happens when I have a random idea. I've been wondering what Blaine and Kurt might be like as parents, but I feel like the whole biological thing has been done so many times and in so many different ways that I really can't add anything to it. So I've decided to make them daddies in a somewhat different way…**

Blaine Anderson had seen many things in his three years as a music teacher. He'd seen his orchestra strings section have fencing matches with their bows (which he'd had to put a stop to fairly quickly, given the fact that they could damage their instruments), stopped kids from putting all sorts of things in each others' seats, and generally prevented his middle schoolers from causing complete chaos in the orchestra room. They were, after all, middle school students. But none of them really stuck out like Rian O'Casey.

Rian wasn't like Blaine's other students, and that wasn't just because he was the most talented member of the class. The boy was almost silent in class, only speaking when it was really necessary. And he was so much more serious about his instrument than any of the other kids – he didn't screw around with the other violin students before class, he didn't do a half-assed job of putting away his instrument at the end of class, and he was _always_ prepared. So the fact that he had been distracted all week, and that now he looked as though he was going to be physically ill. Blaine couldn't help but be worried; he knew that Rian rode the city bus home, and Blaine honestly wasn't sure that was such a good idea given how sick Rian looked.

"Rian, can I talk to you for a minute?" Blaine asked as the rest of his students filed out after the last bell. The boy stopped, turning slowly to face Blaine silently. As soon as the rest of Blaine's students were gone, he walked around to sit on the front of his desk facing the boy. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm f-fine…" Blaine raised an eyebrow, not believing the boy.

"You've been distracted lately, and today you look like you're about to be sick… I want you to take care of yourself, okay? Go home, get some rest. And stay home tomorrow if you aren't feeling better. I know you may not want to miss school, but you'll feel better if you take care of yourself." Blaine watched as the boy seemed to waver slightly, before he sat down in one of the chairs and dropped his violin. Blaine jumped to his feet, putting a hand on Rian's shoulder. "Hey… are you okay?"

"I… I need t-to catch m-my bus…" Blaine watched as the boy started to stand up again but fell back down into his seat. He realized that Rian was pale and starting to sweat.

"Hey… it's okay, we'll call your dad and get him to come pick you up. I don't think you need to ride the bus – you don't look very well." Blaine glanced up at the clock, knowing that he needed to take Rian to the office. "I'm going to take you to the nurse, okay? Do you think you can walk that far?" Blaine watched as the boy nodded and started to help him to his feet. It wasn't until Blaine was actually touching him that he realized that Rian was burning up; clearly, this was worse than Blaine had originally thought.

They were halfway to the office when Blaine felt the boy start to fall. "Rian?" Blaine did his best to keep Rian on his feet, but it just wasn't possible as the boy started vomiting in the hall. Blaine scooped the boy up into his arms, starting to run towards the office. "Stay with me, Rian… stay with me…"

"Mr. Anderson? What happened?" Blaine rushed into the nurse's office, setting the boy down gently.

"I was bringing him to the office because I thought he was too sick to ride the bus, and he just collapsed… he got sick in the hallway." Blaine watched, biting down on his bottom lip as the nurse quickly examined Rian. The boy crossed his arms as soon as the woman went to press on his stomach.

"Rian, I need to see your stomach so that I can figure out what's going on…"

"Please don't… it hurts…" Blaine bit down on his bottom lip, waiting to see what the nurse wanted to do. After a moment she carefully helped Rian turn over onto his side.

"I'm going to call an ambulance… keep him on his side, in case he gets sick again." Blaine nodded, kneeling down next to the narrow cot so that he could keep a hand on Rian's back so that he couldn't roll over.

"It's okay, Rian… we're going to take you to the hospital, get you taken care of," Blaine commented, hearing the boy whimper in pain. Rian looked terrified. "Hey… do you want me to stay with you?" The boy nodded. "Okay… just try and relax. I'm going to stay with you as long as they'll let me."

Everything was a blur once the paramedics arrived; Blaine did his best to stay in Rian's line of sight, which meant that it was impossible for him to miss the bruising that was exposed when one of the paramedics started touching Rian's stomach. The way the boy cried out made Blaine wince. "Okay… Rian, we need to take you to the hospital now. We're going to sit you up and move you over to the stretcher."

"M-Mr. Anderson?" Blaine stepped forward as the boy looked at him.

"Can I stay with him?"

"Okay. Just keep out of the way if anything happens," one of the paramedics replied. Blaine nodded, reaching into his pocket for his phone so that he could shoot a quick text to Kurt and let him know that he would be late getting home.

Blaine was kind of surprised that Rian grabbed his hand as they went out to the ambulance and refused to let go. He'd never really had to deal with a student that was seriously ill before, and he definitely hadn't expected Rian to be quite so attached. He hadn't thought he'd made any kind of impact with this boy, but obviously Rian trusted him. So Blaine held Rian's hand, otherwise keeping his distance so that the paramedics could work. When one of them pulled back the boy's sleeve to insert an IV, Blaine couldn't help but notice the bruises covering Rian's arm.

"How are you feeling, Rian?" the paramedic asked. Blaine glanced up at the man, noting the look of concern on his face. Whatever was going on, it wasn't good.

"T-tired. S-sick…"

"Just stay with us for a little while longer, alright? We're almost to the hospital, and they're going to take care of you."

By the time they got to the hospital, Blaine could tell that something was wrong because the boy's grip had loosened to the point that it was more that Blaine was holding Rian's hand than the other way around. Blaine felt kind of bad that he was forced to let go and stay behind in the waiting room once they got to the hospital. He settled into the waiting room for what he expected would be a long wait.

"You came in with Rian O'Casey?" Blaine looked up as he heard someone speaking to him roughly ten minutes later.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"He's on his way up to surgery right now… it looks like someone hit him hard enough to perforate his intestines. Do you know what happened?"

"No… he seemed off during class, and I was trying to talk to him and see if he was okay. He doesn't talk much… sorry, is he going to be okay?"

"I don't know… he's in bad shape. We'll know more once he's out of surgery. We need to contact his parents, though…" the doctor began.

"The school nurse is working on it… his dad isn't easy to track down right now. Don't you need him to consent to the surgery?"

"We don't have time to wait… it's an emergency."


	2. Of Homecomings and Phone Calls

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So yeah, once again I've done what I'm notorious for doing – I've written multiple chapters without uploading any of them. So yeah, here's the next part of the story…**

"You look tired." Blaine smiled at his husband as he collapsed onto the couch. "How's the kid? Is he going to be okay?"

"He made it through surgery, but beyond that I don't know anything. His dad still wasn't there when I left, but the nurse did finally get in touch with him," Blaine replied. He snuggled up against Kurt, taking the other man's hand. "I'm worried… his stomach was covered in bruises. Someone beat the shit out of this kid, and I couldn't even get him to open up and tell me who did it so that I could help him. He insisted that he was fine up until he couldn't even stand up on his own…"

"He's probably afraid of whoever did this to him… he's always been quiet and stand-offish, hasn't he?" Kurt asked.

"He usually doesn't speak unless it's to ask a question. And even then, it's only after everyone else has left at the end of class. I'm really worried about him…" Blaine closed his eyes as his husband started to play with his hair. It was relaxing.

"Well how would you like some good news?" Blaine raised an eyebrow, sitting up slightly to look at his husband. "I talked to Nadia today…"

"And?"

"And we're officially approved to become foster parents in the state of New York." Blaine couldn't help but smile, leaning in to press a kiss against his husband's lips. "We're going to get emergency placements for a little while, sort of a test run, but we could potentially have our first long-term foster child by Thanksgiving."

"I think that's the best news I've heard all week," Blaine replied. He couldn't help but smile at Kurt. "We should celebrate…"

"Well, the plan was originally that I was going to take you out to dinner tonight, before everything went down with Rian. But seeing as it's a little late, I figured that tonight we would have Chinese takeout and we could plan something better for this weekend, when we don't have a set schedule."

"You don't have rehearsals this weekend?"

"Mira has to go back to Connecticut for a family funeral. She decided to just give everyone the whole weekend off, as a break since we were pulling extra hours of rehearsal all week because things were so crazy."

"Even though you start previews on Wednesday?"

"Things are coming together… I'll feel fine about it if you'll help me go over my lines once or twice before Monday," Kurt replied.

"No problem. I've got a couple of students tomorrow morning, but other than that I'm free all weekend. Although I do want to go check on Rian at some point… he looked pretty bad, and I don't think I'm going to be able to stop worrying about him."

"There's something special about this kid, isn't there?" Kurt asked. Blaine sat up, sighing.

"I just get the feeling that there's something really wrong at home. It had been a couple of hours and his dad still wasn't there… and some of the other teachers have made comments about strange things he does in classes. He always wears long sleeves and he never rolls them up. In the ambulance today, I saw his arms were covered in bruises that looked kind of like handprints…"

"You think he's being abused?"

"I _know_ he is… but I don't know who's hurting him. I don't know what I should do to help him." Blaine glanced down at his hands as Kurt took them. "I mean, I mentioned it to the cops that came down to the hospital. But I feel like I should do something more…"

"You've done everything you can do without Rian _telling_ you what's going on." Blaine nodded, sighing and nodding.

"You're right. There's nothing else I can do because I don't know what's going on. I just need to relax."

"_This_ is why you're going to be a great dad," Kurt replied. Blaine pulled his husband over onto his lap with a smile. "You care so much, even about a kid you're only responsible for a few hours a day. You just can't let yourself start to care _too_ much, okay? You're going to stress yourself out, and that's not good for you."

"Then why don't you help me relieve some of that stress?" Blaine asked with a smirk, leaning in to press a kiss against his husband's lips. Blaine closed his eyes as Kurt started kissing down the side of his neck, humming happily. "Mmm… what about dinner?"

"We can do dinner later. Right now, I want you more," Kurt replied. Blaine smiled, pulling the other man into his lap so that Kurt was straddling his hips. Blaine's hand found its way up underneath multiple layers of clothing so that his fingernails could scratch at his husband's skin on one of the few bare stretches of skin that Blaine knew would be covered by Kurt's costume for the show. He couldn't help but moan at the way his husband's ass ground down on his lap.

"Are we doing this on the couch?"

"I have no problem with that…" Blaine smiled as his husband started removing layers of clothing. He was allowed to sit back and watch as Kurt shed first a vest, then his tie, followed by a button-down shirt so that the man was left in nothing but an undershirt from the waist up.

"That never gets any less sexy," Blaine muttered, using his husband's undershirt to pull the man closer so that he could attack Kurt's neck in return. They always had to be careful about making marks on each other – middle school students were rather adept at noticing every little thing, and Kurt's director would have a fit if Blaine made more work for the makeup artist.

Blaine wasn't really sure how they ended up laying down on the couch, but he couldn't help laughing when they toppled off of it, with Blaine making sure that they landed on his back rather than on Kurt's. Despite Kurt's insistence to the contrary, Blaine still worried that he might somehow hurt his husband because he was slightly heavier than the other man.

Both men groaned as Blaine's cell phone started to ring. "Please just leave it…" Kurt began.

"I can't… what if it's an emergency?"

"They'll call back."

"What if it's Nadia?" Blaine sighed as his husband rolled his eyes and got up.

"If it's Nadia, tell her she'd better be glad we _really_ want kids because she just interrupted a _very_ hot makeout session that was on its way to becoming something even hotter." Blaine laughed as he fished the phone out of his bag. He didn't recognize the number, but something in his gut told him that he needed to answer.

"Hello?"

"_Blaine Anderson?_" Blaine raised an eyebrow.

"This is he… can I ask who's calling?"

"_My name is Sylvia Monroe, from Mercy Hospital. We have a patient asking for you… a Rian O'Casey. You left this number…_" Blaine turned and looked back at his husband, giving him an apologetic look.

"Yeah, yeah… do you need me to come right now? Or should I wait until morning, for visiting hours?"

"_It's probably better if you come now… he's not doing well. We've already called a priest…_"

"I understand… I'm on my way." Blaine hung up the phone, before he turned to look at his husband. "I'm sorry… I need to go. He's asking for me…" Blaine began.

"Go. I'll still be here when you get back." Blaine rushed over to his husband, pressing a kiss against the man's lips.

"I love you."


	3. Long Nights

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: And another chapter written before I've uploaded. Though I'm about to upload the first chapter as soon as I finish writing this author's note…**

Blaine watched in silence as the priest went through the rituals he recognized as what was known as the Last Rites. He'd expected as much, although given the circumstances Blaine had expected the man to be finished with his work by the time Blaine arrived at the hospital. Still, Blaine carefully stroked the back of one of the boy's hands with his thumb as he watched.

"You know him well?" the priest asked once the rituals were completed. Blaine shook his head.

"I'm just his teacher. I happened to be there when he collapsed at school."

"And yet you are here when his own father isn't…" Blaine nodded.

"I'd do anything to help my students. I got a call saying that he was asking for me, so I came," Blaine explained. He turned to look at Rian as the boy began to cough. "I've been teaching for three years, but he'll be the first student I've lost. I just wish that I could do something more for him… save him somehow."

"It never gets any easier. Seeing someone so ill." Blaine nodded, smiling slightly as Rian opened his eyes for a moment. He instantly turned towards his student, wondering what the boy would say.

"I… I'm s-sorry… I sh-should…" Blaine winced as the boy began coughing again, whimpering in pain.

"Shhh… just relax. Breathe, Rian…" Blaine reached up and grabbed the oxygen mask sitting on the pillow, holding it against the boy's face in hopes that it would help. Eventually Rian reached up and feebly pushed Blaine's hand away.

"It w-was Da…"the boy said, closing his eyes again.

"Your dad hit you?" Blaine asked. He assumed that was what the boy meant, his suspicions confirmed when Rian nodded. Blaine sighed. "I wish we had time to call the police."

"He still might have time…" the priest commented. "I don't know that he would have the strength to tell them what happened. Not in enough detail." Blaine reached up and pushed the boy's curls out of his face. It broke his heart to see the boy like that.

"I just wish that he had told me before," Blaine replied. "My husband and I found out today that we're officially approved to take in foster kids. If he… if I had just known…" Blaine shook his head, trying not to cry.

"We can't protect them all."

"But I could have protected Rian."

Blaine wasn't sure how long he sat up with the boy, even after the priest left. The ICU was relatively quiet and it was easy enough for Blaine to fall asleep, leaning his head against the bed. It wasn't until he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder that he sat up, blinking and looking around. The first thing Blaine noticed was that all of the monitors were still showing their signs of life.

"He's certainly a fighter… we didn't think he was going to make it last night." Blaine smiled at the nurse, nodding.

"Do you think he has a chance?" Blaine asked, still holding the boy's hand.

"We aren't allowed to take any heroic measures to save him. But as long as his heart is still beating and he's still strong enough to breathe on his own, we're going to do everything we can for him," the nurse replied as she checked on the boy's vital signs. "He seems to be stronger now than he was last night."

"He said last night that his father hit him…" Blaine began. He watched as the nurse nodded, sighing.

"He said the same thing in the ER. There's a reason the boy's father hasn't been here."

"The police haven't spoken to him, though…" Blaine began.

"They thought he was going to die. Once he's a bit stronger, we'll call them and have him tell them everything. He's still not out of the woods, and he's not strong enough for all of that questioning now." Blaine turned back to the boy, noticing the beads of sweat forming on the boy's forehead and his pained expression.

"Is there anything I can do to help him?" Blaine asked.

"You should go home and get some rest. Right now, he needs some pain medication and another IV of antibiotics." Blaine nodded, standing up and rubbing his eyes as he glanced at his watch. He was surprised to see that it was almost 9 AM; he would have to hurry back to the apartment to make it in time to grab a quick shower and change clothes before his first violin student showed up.

Blaine wasn't surprised to find Kurt awake when he got home. "I'm sorry… it looked like he wasn't going to make it for a while there." Blaine leaned in to press a kiss against Kurt's cheek as he hurried through the kitchen on his way to their bathroom.

"But is everything okay?" Kurt asked.

"Rian's stronger than they thought. But he… he told me that his dad was the one that hit him," Blaine replied, stopping and leaning up against the counter.

"Do you know if they're going to put him into foster care?" Blaine shrugged.

"I don't know anything about his family, other than his dad. And it's still completely dependent on whether or not he survives… I still don't think they're holding out much hope, even if he did make it through the night. They're pumping him full of antibiotics right now, but he was septic when he got to the hospital…" Blaine smiled as he felt his husband take his hand.

"You want to ask Nadia if we can take him, don't you?" Blaine nodded.

"If he makes it through, I really want to offer to take him in. Rian is the exact kind of kid that we wanted to become foster parents to help… he wouldn't have to switch schools, and I could give him violin lessons. He's one of my best students, and he could be good enough to become a professional if he got the right training…" Blaine stopped as he saw his husband smirking at him. "You think I'm getting too far ahead of myself."

"I think that you need to relax a little and worry about the first part of the plan _before_ you start figuring out the kid's whole life for him." Blaine smiled and nodded as Kurt leaned in for another kiss. "Now go ahead and get a shower. Christa and her mom will be here at 11 for her lesson, and I'm sure she'll make some kind of comment if you're still in yesterday's clothes. You know how her mother is…"

"I know, I know… I'll be out in ten minutes."


	4. A Decision and An Introduction

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I'm awake at 2:30 AM writing this when I have to be at work in 10 hours, because I simply cannot sleep. And I should be exhausted, since I worked an extra hour yesterday… but the only thing it got me was really sore feet that I have to stand on for another 6.5 hours today…**

"So we can do this? We can actually sign this paperwork, and when they release Rian from the hospital we'll be able to take him home with us?" Kurt asked. Blaine smiled, squeezing his husband's hand.

"Yes," Nadia replied, nodding and smiling at them. "I've spoken to his old social worker… he was going to be difficult to place. Not only is his age a strike against him, but the amount of care he's going to need in the next few weeks makes it even harder. That the two of you are even willing to try… that's the biggest reason why I'm confident that the two of you are the perfect foster parents for this boy." Blaine watched his husband as the other man glanced at him.

"We're going to do this?" Blaine asked. He couldn't help the way his smile widened as Kurt nodded.

"We're going to do this." Blaine squeezed Kurt's free hand as the taller man signed the paperwork, taking the pen and following suit when Kurt was finished. "So… Blaine knows Rian, but I would love to meet him. Is it alright for us to visit him in the hospital?"

"Of course. It'll be good for him to get a chance to know you both before you bring him home. You should know that he's not going to have much when you pick him up… the last social worker didn't get much in the way of clothing after his father was arrested, and his school things are missing…"

"They're at the school. I'll be able to pick them up tomorrow before I head home," Blaine replied.

"And you've already made the arrangements to have someone stay with Rian until he's well enough to go back to school?"

"I can be home until 4 most weekdays, and I have Tuesdays off. And Blaine is already rearranging his private violin lessons so that they're all either at school on Tuesday or here on the weekends," Kurt replied.

"Then it looks like we have everything settled. Congratulations, you two… you're going to be parents!" Blaine smiled leaning over and pressing a kiss against Kurt's lips.

"We should go to the hospital… see Rian, see if they can tell us anything about his condition and what we'll need to be prepared for while he's recovering," Kurt commented.

Thirty minutes later the two of them were walking into Rian's new hospital room; the boy had been moved out of the ICU, and it took them a little while to track him down. Blaine wasn't all that surprised that the boy was asleep, but he was certainly thankful that the boy looked better than he had the morning before, when Blaine had seen him last.

"We shouldn't disturb him…" Blaine commented, wrapping an arm around Kurt's waist as they stood near the door.

"I'm going to go ask the nurses when his doctor will be coming around again, so that we can talk to him…"

"Don't bother… I'm already here." Blaine smiled at the man who walked into the room at that moment, dressed in hospital-issue scrubs. "I'm Dr. Bazen… you two must be the prospective foster parents. Looking to get more information about his condition before you take the plunge?"

"We actually signed the paperwork about 30 minutes ago. We mostly wanted to come spend some time with Rian to get to know him a bit better, and to see what we need to know before we take him home," Kurt replied.

"Well congratulations, then. Rian's doing well… better than expected, really. He's bouncing back a lot faster than we thought possible. It's still going to take some time for him to get back on his feet; we had to remove his spleen and his appendix, as well as a partial resection of his small intestine. We also found a couple of small ulcers… they're minor, and we're using the same antibiotics to treat both that and the infection caused by his other injuries, as well as a proton pump inhibitor to limit the amount of gastric acid his body produces so that those can heal. If everything goes well in the next couple of days, we should be able to release him sometime Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning."

"What should we do? Is there any special diet he needs to be on? Anything he's not allowed to do?" Blaine asked.

"Make sure he gets plenty of rest and takes his medication on time. Limit his stress for a couple of weeks, try and keep him on a regular schedule as far as meals. Healthy foods, but nothing too acidic – no citrus, tomatoes, and definitely no soda."

"And school?" Kurt added.

"He really needs rest… at least a week out of school, more if he's still stiff or sore," the doctor replied. "We can go over everything in more detail when we're doing the release paperwork in a couple of days… talk about the specifics of his medication and exactly what you'll need to do to take care of the surgical incision, what problems you should look out for when he's home."

"That sounds like a good idea," Kurt replied.

"Meaning he'll bring his notebook to make sure he doesn't forget anything," Blaine added with a smirk. He couldn't help laughing at the bitch face his husband shot him. "Hey… I love the notebook. It means that we're always on top of things thanks to you."

"I need to get through my rounds… I'm just going to check how Rian's healing really quickly, and I'll talk to the two of you again over the next few days."

"Thank you, Dr. Bazen." Kurt and Blaine stood back, waiting as the doctor shook the boy awake.

"Hey, Rian… I'm just going to check how you're healing up, okay?" Blaine watched as the man helped Rian pull up his hospital gown and gently pressed against the boy's abdomen. "Everything looks good… do you have any questions?" Rian shook his head slowly. "Alright, then I'll leave you to get to know your new foster parents…"

"They're here?"

"Yeah." Blaine smiled as Rian glanced over at the two of them.

"Mr. Anderson?" the boy asked. Blaine started walking over to the bed, followed by Kurt.

"We're not at school, so it's okay for you to call me Blaine. And this is my husband, Kurt."

"Where are the foster parents?"

"You're looking at them," Blaine replied.

"When we found out that they were putting you into foster care, Blaine and I asked Nadia if there was any way you could come to live with us. She talked to your old social worker, and they traded cases so that she could make it happen," Kurt added.

"So I don't have to switch schools?"

"No. I can bring you your homework while you're recovering. We've already figured out our schedules so that one of us can be home with you until you're well enough to go back to school."

"I do have a couple of really important questions, though," Kurt said. Blaine watched the look of concern that crossed Rian's face; clearly the boy thought that he might screw things up if he didn't answer correctly. "I really need to know your favorite color, and your favorite food. Your bedroom isn't going to decorate itself, and as soon as the doctor says it's okay we'll make whatever you want to eat one night to celebrate."

"You don't have to do any of that…"

"We _want_ to do it, Rian. We want you to be happy."


	5. Confusion

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So yay, another chapter. Written when I'm supposed to either be sleeping or packing for my Christmas vacation. But I'm DONE with work until the New Year (Best. Feeling. Ever.), and my circadian rhythm seems to be set to about 30 hours instead of 24. So it looks like I'm just gonna write and watch movies until I pass out in a couple of hours.**

Rian was still trying to process that he wasn't going to be living with his dad anymore and that his orchestra teacher was suddenly one of his guardians. It was still a little too surreal, even as he was being ushered through the front door and into an apartment that he'd never seen before.

"So, welcome to our home. Do you want the tour, or would you rather just go get some rest?" Kurt asked. Rian shrugged slightly, not moving too much because he was still sore. "Well, why don't I take you to your room to rest for a while, and then we can show you where everything is later? You look kind of tired." Rian nodded, shoving his hands into the pockets of the sweat pants Blaine and Kurt had brought for him to wear when he got out of the hospital.

Rian followed Kurt down the hallway on the left side of the living room, away from the kitchen. "Your room is over here, and it shares a bathroom with Blaine's office. The other hallway leads to the master bedroom. If you ever need anything, you can come knock on the door, okay?" Rian nodded as Kurt opened a door, smiling as he let Rian into the bedroom. It was small, but Rian couldn't help but be impressed at how nice it was. "I tried to pick out bedding that I thought you would like, but if you don't like the navy I can get something else."

"I like the navy," Rian replied, sitting down on the edge of the bed. It was nicer than any bedroom he'd ever had before. The bedding on the twin bed actually matched and it was all clean and organized. There was even a desk by the window and a bookshelf that had already been stocked with his schoolbooks, and his violin was sitting on top.

"Well we can get some posters or something for you to put up in here, cover these bare walls. But I didn't want to pick much out without getting to know you a little better," Kurt replied. Rian nodded again, kicking off his shoes.

"I think I'm going to lay down for a while…" Rian began. He watched as Kurt nodded and started out of the room.

"Is there anything I can get for you first? Maybe some water?"

"I'm okay. Thanks." Rian was surprised when Kurt simply walked out of the room, closing the door and leaving him alone. He closed his eyes, laying down as he tried to process everything that was happening.

"Rian… Rian? Time to wake up, kiddo…" Rian opened his eyes, not really sure when he had fallen asleep. Blaine was sitting on the side of the bed. "Dinner's ready, if you want to come eat at the table with us. Or we could bring you something to eat, if you aren't feeling up to getting out of bed." Rian winced as he started to get up out of bed; certain movements pulled uncomfortably at the scar tissue on his stomach. "Hey… you okay?"

"Just sore. Not feeling all that great…" Rian began.

"You don't have to get up… if you're too sore, we can bring you your dinner. It's not a big deal."

"I… I'm only supposed to eat at the table…"

"Hey… that may have been the rule at your dad's house, but if you aren't feeling up to going to the table you don't have to," Blaine commented, putting a hand over Rian's. Rian pulled his hand away, a little confused by the gesture. Physical affection wasn't something he was used to, given the fact that his father had only touched him to slap him upside the head. Or worse. "We're more concerned with whether or not you're happy and healthy than if you're getting crumbs in the bed."

"I… I don't want to impose."

"It's not an imposition, okay? You just got out of the hospital, and the last thing we want is to see you end up back in there. So if you're too sore to get out of bed, we aren't going to make you."

"I'm not _too_ sore… I just haven't moved in a while and I'm stiff." Rian watched as Blaine nodded, smiling and standing up. Rian followed suit, albeit much more slowly. They walked out to the main room, where the table had already been set. "I should have…" Rian began.

"We can talk about chores in a couple of weeks when you're feeling better. Don't worry about it." Rian looked over at the kitchen, where Kurt was working on putting the final touches on their meal as he spoke. "I'm sorry the food's a little bland… I wasn't sure exactly what you would be able to eat given what the doctor said, so I wanted to play it safe."

Rian sat down at the table, waiting silently as Kurt brought over the last dish of food and sat down next to him, with Blaine sitting across the table from him. He immediately folded his hands to say the blessing, feeling a little awkward when he realized that the two older men weren't doing the same. "Do you not…" Rian began.

"Feel free to say the blessing if you want to… we aren't religious, but we'll take you to church if you want to go," Kurt replied. Rian unclasped his hands, putting them back in his lap.

"We aren't going to make you change who you are, okay?" Blaine added. Rian nodded, leaning back in his seat as Kurt took his plate and started filling it with food.

"Let us know if you want more to eat," the man commented, putting the plate down in front of Rian again. "You can have as much as you'd like. And you might want to get used to eating a lot, because when we go to Ohio for Christmas my stepmother is going to force-feed you because she'll think you're too skinny."

Rian looked up from his plate, confused. "Christmas?"

"Well, provided this all works out we're planning on you still being with us at Christmas," Blaine began. "We don't want you to have to leave, if you want to be here. We didn't want to make you change schools and move away from everything you knew. The only way we could make sure that you didn't have to do that was to figure out a way to have you live with us." Rian nodded, looking down at the plate in front of him as he tried to figure out what was going on.

The truth was, Rian's life had changed so dramatically in the last few days. He'd been terrified of going home; living with his father had been a nightmare, the kind that he had thought that he would never wake up from. When he'd gotten sick at school and they'd taken him to the hospital, Rian had been sure that it was ending, if only because he didn't think that he was going to survive. But then he had, and Blaine and Kurt had come into his life. Even if it was still strange to call Mr. Anderson by his first name.

"Hey… you okay?" Rian looked up again as he felt Kurt putting a hand on one of his shoulders. "Do you need anything? You were asleep long enough that you can have another dose of the painkillers if you need it." Rian shook his head.

"Maybe after dinner…"

"Just let us know, okay? You don't have to be in pain."


	6. Harder and Harder to Breathe

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: Hey guys! So I'm FINALLY home from my trip to Cali after an exhausting 5 and a half hours of flying with a two hour layover in the middle. This chapter was a little more than half written when I left, but without my laptop for eight days I wasn't able to finish or upload it. But here it is, less than 6 hours after I landed back home!**

"It's creepy to watch him sleep, isn't it?" Kurt asked, wrapping his arms around his husband's waist as they stood in the doorway of Rian's room an hour or so after he'd gone to bed. The boy was passed out across the bed, wearing the same pair of sweatpants and tee shirt he had worn home from the hospital. He hadn't even turned down the covers before he'd fallen asleep.

"Maybe just a little. But… it's just so strange to have a kid in the house. To think that one day, maybe, he might be _our_ kid. You know?" Kurt nodded, smiling.

"I know."

"I want him to stay. I want this to work out," Blaine admitted. "I know that when we talked about all of this, we planned on a younger kid… a baby or a toddler. One that was available for adoption already. But I can't help thinking that maybe what we want isn't what we need to be doing… maybe _this_ is what we're really meant for. To take kids that are hard to place, to give them something stable."

"I think it's a little early to be thinking that far ahead… he's been here less than twelve hours, and I'm pretty sure that he's afraid that if he asks for anything we might send him away." Kurt leaned in and pressed a kiss against his husband's cheek. "But I want this to work out, too. For his sake, and because I want to have a family as much as you do."

"We should probably cover him up… it's bound to get chilly in here later, and he's so stiff and sore. I'd hate for anything to make him feel worse than he already does."

"If you lift him up, I'll pull back the covers." Kurt smiled as Blaine nodded, walking over towards the bed. Kurt followed suit, pulling back the duvet cover and sheets so that Blaine could lay the boy back down and they could cover him up. Kurt watched as the boy blinked his eyes open for a moment, looking confused.

"Shh… go back to sleep," Blaine whispered as he gently tucked the covers around the boy. "We just didn't want you to get cold." Kurt smiled at the boy as he closed his eyes, taking Blaine's hand and leading him back out of the boy's room. He closed the door as they walked out, before walking over to the couch and collapsing onto it. "You need to go get some rest… tomorrow is opening night."

"It's the first night of previews… not that groundbreaking. But you're right, I should be getting ready for bed right now. I just… I worry that he's going to need something in the night and we won't know." Kurt bit down on his bottom lip as he thought about that possibility. It was silly, really, but he couldn't help worrying about the kid.

"I will get up and check on him in a few hours. And Rian's not doing that badly… he's moving slow and he's sore, but considering everything he's doing really well."

"What if he's just trying to tough it out to impress us? What if he's really in pain?" Kurt asked.

"We just have to trust him to tell us, and to watch for any signals that he isn't doing as well as we think. We keep an eye on him, and we encourage him to tell us the truth until he actually does it. That's all we can do…" Kurt nodded, sighing.

"I'm starting to understand why everyone says that parenting is one of the scariest, most challenging things you'll ever do."

"You know, I think with all the excitement we forgot to actually call our parents and tell them about all of this… I know my mom and dad won't be all that excited, but Carole might kill us if she finds out from Finn and Rachel that we've gotten our first foster child," Blaine commented.

"Oh God, you're right… I completely forgot."

"Well, we need to make sure that we do that some time this week… Finn and Rachel are having dinner with us exactly one week from tonight, and if we haven't told Burt and Carole by then you can bet that Rachel will do it before she's even out of the building." Kurt couldn't help but laugh, knowing that Blaine was right about his step-mother and his sister-in-law.

"I know, I know. Rachel has a loud mouth. Although it could just as easily be Finn that lets it slip," Kurt replied. He let his head rest against his husband's shoulder. "I'll call Dad and Carole tomorrow while you're at work. We really should get to bed… you have an early morning tomorrow, and I'm going to have a late night."

Kurt slowly extricated himself from his husband's arms, standing up and turning around to pull Blaine off of the couch. "You're right. I'm going to go ahead and go to sleep. I'll meet you in bed." Kurt smiled Blaine pressed a quick kiss against his lips and walked past him into the bedroom. Kurt followed, hurrying into the bathroom for his evening skincare routine.

Thirty minutes later, Kurt was curled up in the bed next to his husband and drifting off to sleep. The next thing he knew, it was six AM and Blaine was getting out of bed to get ready for work. "How was he? When you checked on him?"

"He was wheezing a little, but I woke him up and he seemed okay after he coughed a few times," Blaine replied. Kurt smiled as he felt Blaine pressing a kiss against his forehead. "I'm going to go check on him again before I leave… go back to sleep while you can." Kurt nodded, closing his eyes again and rolling back over.

Kurt did _not_ appreciate being shaken awake. "_What?_"

"We might have a problem…" Blaine began. Kurt shot up, hurrying towards Rian's new bedroom. "He's wheezing again, but it's gotten worse. Nothing seems to be helping…" Kurt glanced at the clock as he knelt down by the boy's bed, noting the time. Blaine was going to be late for work if he didn't leave soon, and Kurt really didn't want his husband to call out if it wasn't completely necessary. Still, hearing the way Rian struggled to breath worried Kurt.

"You should go to work… I can handle this."

"Are you sure?"

"We'll be fine, Blaine. Go to work, I'll call you if we need you," Kurt replied.

"I can get someone to come sub…"

"Hey… sick kid is a one-parent job, okay? If I can't handle it myself, I have people I can call to help me out." Kurt pulled Blaine in for a quick kiss. "Go to work, I'll text you an update later." Kurt watched as Blaine nodded and started out.

"Just make sure you keep me updated."

"Don't worry, I will." Kurt turned back to Rian, reaching up and running a hand through the boy's curls. He smiled as the boy opened his eyes, immediately starting to cough and wincing. "Hey… I know you need a pain pill. What else can I do for you?"

"Inhaler…" the boy wheezed. Kurt raised an eyebrow; that was the first he'd heard about the boy having any real health issues.

"You have asthma?" Kurt watched as the boy nodded. "Okay… it's in your backpack?" Kurt moved over towards the bag as the boy nodded, digging through the pockets until he found the small, red, plastic device. He handed it to Rian quickly, watching as the boy took two quick puffs on the device. "I'm going to go grab your pain medicine and something for you to eat for breakfast."

Kurt hurried through his tasks in the kitchen, bringing back breakfast for both of them so that he could keep an eye on Rian while they ate. It wasn't long after they started eating before Kurt realized that the boy wasn't breathing any easier. "That didn't help." He watched as Rian shook his head. "Can you try the inhaler again? Is there anything I can do that will help you?" Kurt bit his lip as Rian shook his head. "Okay. Then I think we need to take you to the doctor, see what they can do for you."

"No…" Kurt smiled, putting a hand on Rian's knee.

"This is one of those times when I'm going to have to overrule what you want in favor of what's best for you. You're wheezing too badly… you're having a really hard time breathing, and I'm not comfortable with that," Kurt replied. "Finish eating, and then we're going to go get you some help."


	7. Back to the Hospital

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I couldn't leave it at that; I'm exhausted (as of right now I've slept less than 2 hours since I woke up 36+ hours ago), but I couldn't leave it alone. I think in my head I have a need to make everything okay for Rian before I can leave it alone – considering there are about a dozen different variations of Rian living in my head right now, that's not always easy! But anyways… here you go!**

Blaine couldn't help but worry, despite Kurt's text message insisting that everything was under control and that Blaine didn't need to leave school early to help Kurt care for the boy. He was the one that had pushed for this boy to come live with them, and now when things were going wrong with that plan, Blaine couldn't even be there to do anything about it because Kurt would get too upset with him if he left school early. But as soon as his classroom was clear of students, Blaine grabbed his messenger bag and hurried out to catch a cab to the hospital. While he was normally one to use public transportation, this was an emergency situation and Blaine could get over the added expense for one day.

Thankfully Kurt had had the foresight to send Blaine a text message with the hospital room number before school got out, so all Blaine had to do was run inside the hospital and find his floor.

"How's he doing? I got here as soon as I got out of school…" Blaine began, walking over to Kurt.

"He's still struggling a little, but Dr. Holton said that if he's still improving into the morning, they'll release him to continue breathing treatments at home until he's better."

"Breathing treatments? What does that entail?"

"The doctor already called in the orders to the pharmacy… I'm going to pick everything up this afternoon on my way home to get my stuff for tonight, and the respiratory therapist can show you how to work everything," Kurt replied. Blaine nodded as his husband pressed a quick kiss against his cheek. "I need to go, if I'm going to get it all done and still make it to the theatre in time for tonight's show. I'll see you in the morning."

"I'm going to take tomorrow off…" Blaine began.

"We set up our schedules so that we could take care of him without having to take a lot of time off work. This is a minor setback, not a major change to that routine."

"We have to clean that apartment from floor to ceiling to make sure we get rid of whatever triggered his asthma attack before we take him home…"

"It was probably triggered by the cold he's picked up. They pulled his medical records, and apparently that's been the most common trigger for his asthma attacks," Kurt commented. "I really need to go… I'm going to be late." Blaine nodded.

"Okay… get going, we'll figure out what changes we need to make later. You go, and I'll stay here with Rian tonight." Blaine gave his husband another quick kiss before he let the other man go and settled into the only chair in the room to wait for Rian to wake up.

The afternoon went fairly quickly; Blaine had a stack of music theory quizzes to grade from his younger students, as well as some music to look over to decide if it was appropriate for his more advanced orchestra students as well as the small group of kids he taught strings lessons each week.

"What am I missing?" Blaine looked up from his work a couple of hours after he got started, smiling at Rian as the boy looked at him.

"Kurt left for the theatre a couple of hours ago, and he was going to pick up some more medication for your asthma on the way. I'm not sure what's been going on around here otherwise, because I've been sitting here doing grades and lesson plans since I got out of school."

"I meant at school…"

"Orchestra's just been rehearsing all of the same music we were working on last week. I haven't looked at your other assignments since I picked them up," Blaine admitted. He hurried to his feet as Rian started coughing, grabbing the oxygen mask from where it had been left next to Rian's head and holding it up to the boy's face. Blaine smiled as Rian reached up to try and hold the mask himself. "I think you need to keep this on for a little while… it might make things a little easier on you." Blaine glanced at the monitor that was showing how much oxygen Rian was actually getting. The number seemed low, although Blaine didn't really know what the numbers meant.

"You should listen to your dad on that one… the pulse-ox reading is still too low." Blaine looked up. "You must be Blaine. I'm Dr. Holton… I was just coming to check on Rian before I left for the night. Does it feel like it's getting easier to breathe?"

"Kind of… it's still tough…" Blaine watched as the doctor nodded.

"Someone should be coming to give you another breathing treatment soon. That should make things easier on you, and hopefully help you get some sleep tonight."

"Kurt said that the respiratory therapist would be able to show me how to do a breathing treatment…?" Blaine began.

"Just make sure to ask. It's a fairly simple task. If he starts sounding worse, tell one of the nurses. They can get in touch with me any time, and I'll come back down here as quickly as I can if anything happens." Blaine nodded, smiling.

"Thank you, Dr. Holton."

"No problem. Rian, try to get some rest. The sooner you get over this cold, the sooner we can relax a little bit. I'll talk to one of you tomorrow about what we'll need to do once he's released as far as further appointments." Blaine nodded, making a mental note that he would have to ask Kurt about those details if he wasn't at the hospital when that conversation happened.

By the time the doctor was gone, Blaine could see that Rian was starting to fall asleep again. The difficulty he was having breathing wore him out; Blaine couldn't help but feel bad for the boy.

"You don't hate me, do you?" Blaine's head jerked over towards Rian, raising an eyebrow.

"Why would I hate you?"

"Because I'm sick… because I'm messing up your life…" Rian began.

"You can't help being sick, Rian. You aren't messing up our lives, either. Kurt and I knew when we took you in that you were going to need a lot of extra care for a while. If it had been a problem for us, we wouldn't have offered to take you in the first place. You need to rest, okay? We want you to get better so that we can take you home and get you back to school and as normal as possible. We'll do whatever it is we need to do to make that happen for you." Blaine shook his head as Rian reached up to pull away the oxygen mask. "Seriously, keep the mask on. It's helping." Blaine pointed at the number the doctor had referenced previously, which had risen from the mid 80s up to bounce between 91 and 92.

Blaine looked up again as he heard someone knocking on the door and a woman ducked her head in. "I'm here for a breathing treatment for Rian… my name is Diana." Blaine smiled as she came in, walking over towards the bed and removing the oxygen mask over the boy's face. It was replaced with another, somewhat different mask that Diana added a yellow-tinged medication to.

"So what exactly are you doing? I need to learn…" Blaine began.

"It's pretty simple. On the nebulizer at home, there will be a reservoir like this one to put the medication in. You'll simply fill it with a single pouch of his medication, attach it to the nebulizer, and let him breathe it in once it's turned on. There should be instructions on how to do all of that… he should be able to do everything on his own, but it's always good for someone else to know in case he's having a really bad attack and he can't do it for himself. But that shouldn't happen too often… he should be able to catch an attack in time to hopefully stop it before it gets _that_ bad."

"And if it is that bad?"

"You do a breathing treatment. And if that doesn't work you call an ambulance and bring him here so that we can get him breathing properly again as soon as possible." Blaine nodded, biting down on his bottom lip as he watched. "This takes a little while. He needs to breathe in all of the medication, and it takes some time." Blaine watched silently as Rian struggled to breathe the medication into his lungs.

"Will it always be this hard? Are we going to have to do this regularly, or just when he's had an attack?"

"Just when he's struggling to breathe… during or after attacks, when he's sick. Whenever he needs any kind of help."


	8. Dealing With Issues

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: Another chapter! I'm kind of excited about this one, because it gave me a chance to get into Rian's head a bit. Which is hilarious, given the fact that I created Rian… shouldn't I know him better than anyone else? But still, I like writing things from his perspective, especially showing how he feels about the characters we all know and love.**

The hospital was beginning to become Rian's second home, and he _really_ didn't like it. No one liked the hospital, really, but Rian had spent far too much time in this particular one recently. Needless to say, he was more than ready to go home when Blaine helped him into the wheelchair the next afternoon.

"You still need to do breathing treatments every three to four hours for the next few days, at least until his appointment with Dr. Holton. And his inhaler should always be within reach, just in case. If he has another bad attack, bring him back to the hospital immediately." Rian watched as Blaine nodded at the nurse going over the discharge instructions for the third time.

"We can handle that." Rian smiled slightly as the man put a hand on his shoulder.

"Good. We should get you downstairs… that cab should be here any minute now and I'd hate for you to miss it," the nurse replied. Rian closed his eyes as they started moving towards the exit, just thankful that he wasn't going to be stuck in the hospital bed any longer.

It wasn't until they were in the cab that Rian started to realize just how awkward the situation he was in could be. He'd gotten used to being around Blaine and Kurt, of course, but he really wished that he could have his mother there at that moment. He still didn't feel well, and he really just wanted someone who could hold him and try to comfort him. Given how little time he had spent with his new foster family, he really wasn't sure if that was appropriate.

"You okay?" Rian looked over at Blaine as the man put a hand on his shoulder, smiling at him. "You look a little uncomfortable."

"I'm just tired," Rian replied. He closed his eyes, both because he was actually tired and because he wanted to illustrate his point, in the hopes that he would be able to keep his orchestra teacher from asking too many questions.

"It won't take long for us to get home. You can go back to your bed, or you could hang out on the couch for a while and watch some TV, if you'd like." Rian nodded without opening his eyes, letting his head rest against the cool glass of the window. He winced as he started coughing, feeling Blaine immediately starting to pull him closer and pressing his inhaler into his hands. Rian shook his head, passing the device back as he finally stopped coughing.

"I'm okay." Rian closed his eyes again. He was still sitting a decent distance away from the older man, fighting the urge to try to curl up right next to Blaine and seek out some kind of comfort.

Getting back to the apartment once the cab dropped them off took a little longer than either Blaine or Rian had really expected it to. Rian was weaker than either of them had really expected, and he was still moving slowly from his surgery. By the time they got upstairs, Rian had to lean against Blaine to make it the last several yards across the room to the couch. He watched in silence as Blaine picked up the remote control and handed it to him.

"Why don't you go ahead and try to find something on TV to watch? I'll go get the pillow and blanket from your bed, so that you can be comfortable out here," Blaine replied. Rian nodded, closing his eyes again.

Rian hadn't cried. Not since everything had happened. He'd been strong for as long as possible since his life had changed so dramatically, but he couldn't do it any longer. He jut wanted his mother to be there with him, and the tears slipped down his face faster than he could wipe them away.

"Rian? What's wrong?" Rian shook his head, trying not to cry. "Rian, please tell me… I can't make it better if you won't tell me what's upsetting you." Rian felt the man kneel down and take his hand. "Does something hurt?"

"N…no…" Rian whispered his response, shaking his head.

"Rian, please tell me what's going on. I want to help you." Rian turned to look at the man, surprised by how much his orchestra teacher legitimately seemed to _care_ about what was going on with him. "Why are you upset?"

"I… I want my mom. I just want her to hold me…" Rian closed his eyes, surprised when he felt Blaine gently lifting him so that Blaine could sit down with his arms around Rian's body.

"What happened to your mom?" Blaine asked. Rian buried his face in Blaine's neck as the man spoke. "Do you mind me asking?"

"She died. Wh-when I was nine. An anyeurism. My… my dad his her so hard, and she just collapsed…" Rian could feel the man hold him a bit tighter and press a kiss against his forehead.

"I'm sorry." Rian curled up a bit closer to Blaine – as much as he could given the fact that his stomach still hadn't healed completely. "I know we can't replace your mom… that's the last thing either of us wants to do. But we will do everything we can to help you."

Rian didn't remember falling asleep, curled up against his foster father's chest as he left a large wet spot on the man's shirt. But when he opened his eyes again he was still curled up against Blaine, the low sound of the television on in the background as he shifted uncomfortably. His stomach muscles were starting to protest every move that he made.

"Do you need anything?"

"'m sore," Rian muttered, closing his eyes again as Blaine gently lifted him so that the man could get up.

"It's time for medication, anyway. I'll get your pain pill and set up your breathing treatment while I make dinner." Rian nodded, leaning back against the pillow Blaine had managed to adjust to make Rian comfortable as he stood up. "Do you have any preferences for dinner? I know you still can't eat a lot, but I'll make you whatever you want that you can eat."

Rian shrugged. "Food's not on my mind right now… still not hungry."

"Your appetite will come back. Hopefully soon. You need to put on some weight before we introduce you to Kurt's parents, or his step-mother might kill us for not taking care of you properly."

"P-parents?" Rian watched as Blaine started to walk around, getting everything together for Rian.

"Kurt's parents come here every year for Thanksgiving, and we always go to Ohio for Christmas. Hopefully you'll be able to get to know them pretty well… they've been looking forward to the idea of grandchildren for a while now. You're our first foster child, and Finn and Rachel aren't planning on having kids for a while, so you're pretty special." Rian felt a little… awkward about being told that he was special. That was pretty much the opposite of everything his father had ever called him. He didn't really get a chance to think about it that much, given the fact that Blaine came back at that moment with his medication and the nebulizer, setting everything up as Rian swallowed the pills. "I'll be back in a little while to check on you, okay? Just let me know if you need anything."


	9. Matinees

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So here's another chapter; it's a bit longer than usual, but I just kept coming up with ideas that I wanted to include. I hope you enjoy!**

Kurt was exhausted by the time he got home after his Friday night show. Technically it was the early hours of Saturday morning before he arrived home, dropping his bag by the door and stumbling blindly towards the master bedroom. He pressed a kiss against Blaine's forehead as he passed by the bed to go brush his teeth – he'd gone through his whole skincare routine prior to leaving the theatre because he couldn't stand the stage makeup he was forced to wear – so that he could collapse into the bed.

"Hey…"

"I didn't mean to wake you…" Kurt began, whispering.

"'S'okay… I need to get up and check on Rian, anyway." Kurt nodded, sitting down on the side of the bed.

"How was this afternoon? He didn't seem to be in a very good mood when I left for the theatre…" Kurt watched as the man sat up, sighing.

"He's getting restless. I called Janelle and got a couple of tickets to see your matinee tomorrow, so hopefully that'll help. He seemed excited about the idea."

"Is that a good idea? He's been sick, and he's been in bed for almost two weeks now. I'd hate for him to get overwhelmed," Kurt replied.

"We talked about it… we agreed that if he wasn't feeling well, he would let me know and I would take him home early. If he's still feeling alright, we'll come backstage to eat with you before the evening show." Kurt nodded, sighing.

"Okay. Just text me if you have to take him home so that I don't wait on you forever and miss out on my only chance to eat tomorrow." Kurt leaned over, pressing a kiss against his husband's lips for a moment.

"Of course. You go get ready for bed. I'll be back in a minute." Kurt hurried through the remainder of his bedtime routine, mainly because he really wanted to see Rian again before he went to bed. He trusted Blaine, of course, but Kurt always seemed to feel better about leaving Rian alone if he had seen that the boy was okay with his own eyes.

Kurt was a little surprised to see Blaine wandering around the kitchen, looking for something. "What's wrong?"

"He's wheezing a little. I figured that going ahead with a breathing treatment probably wouldn't be such a bad idea." Kurt nodded, grabbing the boy's medication out of its place in the cabinet as Blaine got the pieces of the nebulizer together to take into the boy's room. Kurt sat down on the edge of the bed as Blaine set the machine up, helping Rian sit up a little and reaching over to stroke the boy's face. He could hear the wheezing sound Blaine had been talking about. "I think we may have missed a treatment earlier… that's probably why he's struggling now."

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked. He watched as Rian nodded his head, Blaine slipping a mask over the boy's face for the breathing treatment. "Is it always like this when you get sick? Or is it just worse than normal because you were already a little weak?"

"Normally don't get sick…" Rian muttered. Kurt glanced at Blaine and nodded, smiling.

"Well, hopefully once you get over all of this things will go back to normal, so that you can get back to school and get out of the house some. I'm sure you're starting to go stir-crazy being stuck in here with just the two of us all the time," Blaine replied. Kurt smiled.

"Why don't you just go ahead and try to fall back to sleep? We'll come back to cut the machine off in a few minutes, when you're done," Kurt added. He watched as Rian closed his eyes, drifting back into a less-than-peaceful sleep.

"Why don't you go ahead to bed? I've got this covered, and I can sleep a little later tomorrow than you can." Kurt nodded, standing up and giving Blaine another quick kiss.

"I'll see you in a few minutes."

Kurt was comfortably tucked into bed, reading glasses on and working on the next chapter of the book he'd been working on by the time Blaine made it back into their bedroom. "He settled back in?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah… he's breathing a lot easier now than he was. I have to say, I'll be really glad when he's feeling better and we don't have to worry about medication and breathing treatments every few hours." Kurt nodded, smiling.

"It's temporary."

"I know… I can't imagine taking on a child that would need this kind of care for the rest of his life. At least we'll get a break from all of this, before the next health issue comes up. I just hope it isn't anything too serious, when it does happen," Blaine replied.

"I think at this point we can take on just about anything that might get thrown at us."

* * *

><p>Kurt collapsed across the couch in his dressing room, both exhausted and exhilarated from his performance. He only had a few hours between shows – just long enough for a quick meal with Blaine and Rian before he had to start getting ready again. Kurt smiled as someone knocked on his dressing room door. "Come in!"<p>

"You were amazing!" Blaine hurried into the room, ushering Rian in front of him. "Now I'm sorry I missed your first night."

"It wasn't _that_ good… there are still some kinks to work out of the show, and I forgot a couple of changes in Act 2. We still have another week of previews to work it all out, though, so it should all be good by opening night," Kurt replied. He gently nudged Rian's shoulder as the boy settled in on the couch next to him silently. "What did you think?" He watched as the boy shrugged. "Tired?" The boy nodded.

"We should eat… then I'll take Rian home to get some rest," Blaine replied. Kurt nodded in agreement, noting the fact that Rian was already starting to fall asleep leaning against him.

The three of them ate their meal in relative silence; Blaine and Kurt knew that Rian was tired, and they didn't really want to push him to talk. It was just kind of nice for the three of them to sit there, at least in Kurt's mind. They were a little family, and it just felt so right.

By the time Blaine and Kurt had finished eating and Blaine had cleaned up, Rian was fast asleep against Kurt's chest.

"I should wake him up, take him home to bed," Blaine commented.

"Why don't you just let him sleep for a little while? I still have some time, and he can stay here on the couch during the second show if he's still asleep."

"You really want the two of us in your way for the rest of the night?

"I hate to wake him, when he's sleeping so peacefully. If he was wheezing like he was last night, I'd be telling you to get him home," Kurt replied.

"I should get him home _before_ he starts that again… I don't like it, and I don't want to put him through all of that. Not after all the trouble we've been going through to make sure he gets better." Kurt nodded, sighing.

"At least let him sleep here for a little while… he seems to be comfortable, and I don't have any reason to get up just yet." Kurt put a protective arm around Rian, or at least did his best considering the awkward position they were in, to illustrate his point. He watched as Blaine smiled.

"Of course. We won't wake him up until we have to." Kurt smiled as Blaine moved the pillows Kurt had been leaning against so that he could move into that space and put his arms around Kurt in a similar manner. "I love this… I love being able to hold you, while you hold our son…"

"That's the first time you've said that," Kurt commented. "Our son… it sounds so _right_, doesn't it?" He couldn't help the smile that crossed his face.

"I talked to the prosecuting attorney today… she said she would help us get his father's rights terminated, if we decide to pursue that."

"We should talk to Rian about it, first," Kurt replied. He smiled as Blaine pressed a kiss against his forehead.

"Of course. It won't be until after his father's trial, once all of that's settled. If he's convicted, it'll help our case for terminating his rights so that we can adopt Rian. But I'm not going to put Rian through any more trips to the courthouse than we have to… and if he doesn't want to be adopted we won't push it." Kurt nodded.

"Did she say anything about court dates?"

"Next month, at the earliest. If they don't try to postpone the trial. They're trying to push him into taking a plea bargain at the moment, hopefully to spare Rian the stress of going to trial," Blaine explained.

"I'm not sure which would be better."


	10. Meeting Relatives and Good News

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So yay, another chapter. The ending was sort of a surprise… even to me. It was just sort of something that came to me while I was writing, and I decided to go with it. I like it, and I know that I can do something with it.**

Blaine watched from where he was grading theory quizzes at the kitchen table as Kurt showed Rian how to "properly" chop up the vegetables for the salad they were making. "If you hold the knife that way while you chop, you'll cut yourself. And go slow, because we don't really have time to go to the hospital for stitches tonight."

"You're going to scare him away from ever wanting to use a knife again," Blaine commented, turning back to his papers.

"If I'm teaching him to cook, I need to teach him how to do it properly… including how to cook safely," Kurt replied. Blaine just shook his head, smiling and going back to his work. "Blaine, Rachel and Finn are on their way here already… will you please put that away and set the table?" Blaine sighed, packing up the quizzes and putting them back into his bag, which he took into his office and put away before he wandered into the kitchen to wash his hands and get the dishes for the table.

"But what if they don't like me?" Blaine barely heard the whispered question from where he was working at the table, but he slowed his movements in the hope that he would hear the answer.

"Of course they're going to like you, Rian… you're a good kid."

"But I'm not what you wanted…" Blaine stopped, turning and watching the way Kurt put down what he was doing and walked over to Rian, taking the boy's face in his hands and pressing a kiss against the top of Rian's head.

"You are _exactly_ what we want, Rian. It doesn't matter what happened in the past, what we wanted in the past. We're happy… we want you here. _That_ is the only thing that matters. As long as you're happy here, with us, then you are welcome to stay here."

"But you wanted to adopt…" Blaine walked over towards Kurt and Rian.

"And we will… we're going to talk about it with you, when it gets closer to that time," Blaine replied.

"But you don't want to adopt _me_."

"Rian, we want that more than anything. We just don't want to get your hopes up, or to get too invested in the idea ourselves because we just don't know if it's going to be possible," Kurt tried to explain.

"We aren't going to know if we can even _try_ to adopt you until after your dad's trial. And we didn't want to do anything without discussing it with you first. It's just a little too early to really start thinking about the adoption process, when there are so many other things that have to happen first," Blaine added. He watched as Rian nodded, still looking a little upset. Blaine put an arm around the boy's shoulders. "We don't want this to end badly. It's just not going to be easy, and we don't want to just assume that we can do this and then all end up getting our hearts broken because it doesn't work out."

"W-would it be okay if I just went to lay down for a while before dinner? I'm kind of tired…" Rian commented.

"Of course. It isn't going to be that long, but if you're tired you should go lay down. Do you need anything?" Kurt asked as Blaine went back to finishing the table, watching as Rian shook his head and walked off towards his bedroom. "I don't think that he believes us."

"I know… I don't think he's used to the idea of having someone who really cares about him. We never should have made any kind of comment about what we'd originally thought about when we started this process… I don't want him to feel like he's a consolation prize," Blaine began. "I don't know how to explain to him that the plan changed the minute we found out he needed us. That _he_ is the reason our priorities changed… because he became something special to the two of us."

"I don't know… but we have to show him somehow. We _have_ to make this work out. I don't want to lose him…"

"Me, either." Blaine looked up as the door buzzer rang, indicating that Finn and Rachel were downstairs. Blaine checked the monitor quickly, before hitting the button to let their friends into the building.

Kurt was the one to actually open the door and let his step-brother and sister-in-law into the apartment. "Sorry we're running a little behind tonight… things have been kind of crazy the past couple of weeks."

"Don't worry about it… we had a late lunch anyway," Rachel replied, immediately hugging both of them. "So, how have things been, other than crazy?" Blaine couldn't help but smile.

"Well, we do have some good news to share with you guys," Blaine began.

"We found out a week and a half ago that we've been approved as foster parents." Blaine was kind of surprised at how quickly Rachel could squeal and jump at the two of them for hugs. Finn's smile and congratulatory pat on the back was much more expected.

"Dude… that's awesome. When will you get your first foster kid?" the taller man asked.

"We already did… his name is Rian, and he's twelve," Blaine replied.

"He actually moved in the day before we started previews at the theatre," Kurt added.

"Well, where is he? Is he joining us for dinner?" Rachel suddenly seemed to be a ball of energy, looking around the room as if she was searching for the boy.

"He's going to eat with us… Blaine, why don't you go get him while I finish dinner?" Blaine nodded, walking towards Rian's room as Finn and Rachel made themselves comfortable at the table.

Blaine was surprised to see that Rian was actually laying down across the bed, one arm across his eyes as he apparently tried to sleep. Blaine walked over to the boy, gently shaking his shoulder and smiling as Rian moved his arm away. "Finn and Rachel are here… you feeling up to coming out for dinner?" The boy shrugged, closing his eyes again. "You look awfully tired."

"Did homework all day… didn't think it would be so exhausting." Blaine nodded, reaching out to help the boy sit up.

"You need to eat something. Why don't we go eat, and after dinner you can come lay back down if you want," Blaine replied. He smiled as Rian nodded, getting up and helping the boy to his feet. "Rachel's really excited to meet you. I think Finn is too, but he's not as obvious about it as Rachel."

"What if I disappoint them?" Rian whispered.

"You won't. All they expect is a kid named Rian… they aren't looking for anything specific, okay? Just be yourself. They're going to love you." Blaine pressed a quick kiss against the top of Rian's head, leading the boy out into the living room. "Guys, this is Rian… Rian, this is Rachel and Finn." Blaine watched as Rachel immediately walked over and wrapped the boy in a hug.

"Rachel, don't suffocate the kid…" Finn commented with a smirk.

"Finn, shut up…" Blaine raised an eyebrow at the way Finn laughed and shook his head.

"She's just hormonal…"

"Finn! You weren't supposed to tell them yet!" Rachel screeched. "Now you've ruined the surprise!" Blaine raised an eyebrow.

"What surprise?" Kurt asked. They were both pretty confused, until suddenly Kurt's eyes opened wide. "Oh my God… Rachel Barbra Berry-Hudson… are you pregnant?"

"We just found out last week. Totally an accident, but I don't even care because we're so happy," Rachel replied. Blaine wrapped Rachel in a hug.

"Congratulations, you guys… that's so exciting!"

"But you can't tell Mom or Burt… we haven't called anyone in Lima yet. I wasn't actually supposed to tell anyone until Thanksgiving. We were supposed to tell everyone together," Finn added.

"Which is precisely why we called Dad and Carole to let them know about Rian before we told either of you… we knew that you couldn't keep a secret, Finn," Kurt replied with a smile. "Anyways, we should eat. I don't want the food to get cold."


	11. Back to School

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I finally got around to writing another chapter of this story. Schoolwork is getting the best of me at the moment, thanks to some insanity with my schedule that took the better part of Monday to get figured out and the ridiculous work schedule I currently have going on. But I'm going to keep going on this and every other story I have going at the moment… it just may be a little bit slower than you're used to!**

Blaine had been worrying about this day ever since Rian had come home with them from the hospital. He wasn't sure how well Rian was going to handle going back to school. Blaine was just thankful that it was the week of Thanksgiving, meaning that it was only two days before they would be out of school and on a plane to Ohio. So to say that he was relieved when the last period of the day came around would be an understatement. After all, Rian was in his last period class and it would be easy for Blaine to see exactly how he was doing.

"Alright, guys… I know you're excited, but we still have today and tomorrow to rehearse before you get to go on Thanksgiving break and we have a concert in less than two weeks, so I need everyone to focus!"

The class went by more quickly than Blaine anticipated, and he really didn't feel as though they were very well prepared for their upcoming concert. Especially given the fact that Rian didn't know his music very well considering how much class he'd missed. Blaine sat down at his desk and sighed as his students filed out of the room, working on packing up his own things while everyone but Rian hurried to get out of the room before Blaine could call them back to rehearse more.

"You're frustrated?" Blaine looked up at Rian's comment, smiling at the boy as he checked to make sure that they were alone.

"A little. Things aren't coming together as well as I had hoped," Blaine replied. "We'll get it together, but I'm going to be nervous about it the whole break unless it's a lot better tomorrow."

"I'm sorry…" Blaine shook his head at Rian's response to his comment.

"It's not your fault. I know that you'll be fine with the music by the concert… there's a reason you usually end up sitting first chair. I just worry that the music I picked out is too difficult for most of the class, and that it's going to be a disaster and it's all my fault."

"You can't control everything."

"I can control how hard the music is. I can encourage you all to practice more when we aren't in class…" Blaine replied.

"But it's still up to all of _us_ to put forth the effort. You can't _make_ any of us practice outside of class. Well, except for maybe me." Blaine smiled, shaking his head.

"I'm not going to force you to practice at home… you spend enough time doing that on your own, without either Kurt or myself pushing you to do it," Blaine replied. He looked over at the door for a moment, sighing as he grabbed his bag. "We should go… you have homework, and I still have to figure out what we're going to eat for dinner so that Kurt doesn't yell at me for not feeding you properly." Blaine couldn't help but smile at the way the boy rolled his eyes at the idea.

"He acts like I'm helpless sometimes…" Rian muttered.

"He worries about you. We both do… you're special to us. We're responsible for making sure that you're okay, and after everything that's happened we're a little on edge about all of that. We don't want anything bad to happen to you." Rian simply shrugged. Blaine had a feeling that the boy didn't completely believe what he was saying.

Truth be told, they had been fighting that mindset ever since Rian had moved in with them a few weeks earlier. It was difficult; Blaine and Kurt both wanted to be there for Rian, but the boy was still resisting letting them get close, almost as if he was afraid to get too close to either of them. And Blaine had to admit that it was probably their fault. They had been honest with Rian about the issues with their future plans to adopt him, and now it seemed as though the boy didn't want to let himself get too close or too attached to them. Which was difficult, because Kurt and Blaine both really wanted to be _dads_ to Rian.

"We don't have to take a cab…" Rian commented as Blaine stepped out towards the street to hail a taxi.

"I don't want you on the subway just yet… I know you feel better, but I'm just worried that people are a little too rough. I don't want you to get hurt." Blaine put a hand on Rian's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "I know this is weird, okay? It's kind of a new thing for all of us… so just let us be a little annoyingly anxious about everything, just for now. We'll lighten up once we actually know what we're doing with this whole parenting thing. I promise."

Blaine ushered Rian into the cab for their brief ride back to the apartment, which was surprisingly silent. Blaine had to admit that he was a little surprised by the fact that Rian simply went into his bedroom to start his homework as soon as they got back to the apartment, without saying a word.

Blaine went into the kitchen, looking through the fridge to see what ingredients they had for him to make dinner since Kurt had taken the previous night's leftovers to the theatre with him. What he _really_ wanted to do was order Chinese and sit down in front of the TV with it. But given the fact that they were trying to make sure that Rian was only eating healthy foods, that really wasn't an option. Thankfully, it looked like Kurt had gotten bored, as the man had cooked paella and put it into the fridge for them. "Kurt Hummel, I love you…"

"I don't think that he can hear you…" Blaine turned around, smiling at Rian's comment.

"He may not be able to hear me, but he did make us dinner. Which just made my day, because I really wasn't looking forward to cooking."

"Isn't that why they invented takeout?" Rian asked. Blaine smirked.

"Takeout gets a little expensive if you do it too much… not to mention that Kurt and I have been trying to avoid feeding you a lot of takeout or junk food until the ulcers have had enough time to heal."

"It's been three weeks. I'm off the antibiotics. Isn't that supposed to mean that I'm better?" Blaine shrugged, pulling a couple of glasses out of the cabinet and pouring some water for each of them.

"I'd rather be safe than sorry. Besides, we're going to be eating out on the way to Ohio in a couple of days. And Carole is going to be giving you everything you want to eat while we're there, because she's going to think we aren't feeding you enough since you're so thin." Blaine handed one of the glasses of water to Rian, knowing that the boy had more than likely come into the kitchen for that reason. "I'll warm up dinner around the time we usually eat… why don't you get started on your homework? I'm going to throw in some laundry and start trying to get everything together for our trip."


	12. Travel Woes

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: **

Kurt couldn't help but be frustrated by the fact that everything seemed to be going wrong as they tried to get ready to leave for Ohio. For starters, Rian's doctor's appointment after school on Tuesday hadn't gone as well as they had hoped – the boy's ulcers hadn't completely healed yet, which meant that he was on a new set of antibiotics. Antibiotics with some slightly unpleasant side effects that weren't going to be fun to deal with on the plane ride to Ohio.

Then, of course, when they tried to get everything packed it seemed as though nothing they needed was anywhere to be found. Although Blaine had done laundry already, somehow he'd missed a few of the important items that they needed. So after a rushed load of laundry, they were finally packed with only a few minutes to spare. After that, of course, their taxi was late picking them up and there were issues with security because Rian hadn't known that he wasn't allowed to bring a bottle of water with him as he hadn't flown in years.

"I'm sorry… I didn't know…" Rian was still muttering as they started to board the plane.

"Don't worry about it, Rian… it was an honest mistake, we didn't think to make sure that you knew the rules about liquids on the plane," Blaine replied, gently guiding the boy into the center seat on their aisle as he placed their carryon bags in the bin. Kurt was already seated in the window seat, buckling his seatbelt.

"We'll get you some more water from the flight attendants as soon as everyone's seated, if you need it," Kurt added. Blaine smiled and sat down in his seat as Kurt handed Rian one of the sides of his seatbelt. "Just buckle up and _relax_, okay? We didn't miss our plane… it isn't a big deal."

It wasn't going to be a long flight, but the wait for the whole safety demonstration as well as the line of planes waiting to take off meant that they spent at least a good thirty to forty-five minutes sitting on the plane waiting to take off. And the longer they sat there, the paler Rian seemed to get. "Hey… you okay?" Blaine asked as the plane rolled to a stop once again, waiting for its chance on the runway. He watched as the boy closed his eyes, shaking his head. Blaine immediately reached up to press the call button.

"Sir, we're about to take off…" the woman began as she walked up.

"I know… I'm sorry. Can I please just get him some water? The medication he's on makes him feel a little sick…" Blaine began, gently moving an arm around Rian's shoulders. He watched as the woman's eyes widened and she hurried back towards the front of the cabin, quickly returning with a bottle of water and a packet of pretzels that Blaine knew had come from the box of complimentary snacks for first class passengers.

"Just let me know if he needs anything else… I have to get back to my seat, but I'll come check on him again once we're underway." Blaine smiled and nodded as he opened the bottle of water and handed it over to Rian to sip.

"Thank you." Blaine wasn't really sure what the sad smile the woman gave him was supposed to mean, but he was a little too focused on making sure that Rian wasn't going to be sick to really think about what it might mean.

"Small sips, okay? Just a little bit at a time." Blaine watched carefully as Kurt did his best to make sure that the boy wasn't going to be ill before they'd even managed to take off. "I think she's jumped to a much worse conclusion than what's really going on here…" Blaine raised an eyebrow. "She took one look at him and freaked out."

"He looked like he was about to be sick. Anyone would have freaked out," Blaine replied.

"Think about what you said to her… the medication he's on makes him _sick_. He looks like he's about to vomit, he's pale and kind of sweaty. Not to mention that he's underweight…"

"You think she assumed he's dying?" Blaine shook his head, looking back down at Rian as they finally reached the runway and the engines switched over to start takeoff. The boy's color looked a little better, but he was still pale and his eyes were closed. Blaine took the bottle of water from the boy's hands and put the cap back on it, holding the chilled water against the boy's cheek.

"Is the water helping any?" Blaine watched as the boy nodded slowly in response to Kurt's question.

"Just try to relax… we'll be in the air soon, and then you can go to the bathroom if you need to," Blaine commented. He and Kurt both watched Rian carefully, exchanging the occasional glance as they both worried over what they should do. After a minute, Blaine grabbed the packet of pretzels. "Rian, do you think you could eat something? It might help…"

"I don't know…" Rian whispered. Blaine opened the packet quickly, handing the boy one of them. He reached up and gently rubbed the back of the boy's neck as Rian nibbled at the food.

"Just let me know if you need to get out, okay?" Rian nodded again, still nibbling at the pretzel a little bit.

When Blaine checked a couple of minutes later, he noticed that Rian had closed his eyes. "I think he's asleep."

"Probably a good thing… I don't think he slept very well last night," Blaine replied, reaching over to move the boy's head so that it was resting against his shoulder instead of pitched forward uncomfortably. When Rian didn't stir at all, Blaine assumed that Kurt was right and the boy was, in fact, asleep. "At least he'll get a decent nap before we get to the insanity of Thanksgiving with our families."

"I have to say, I'm kind of surprised that your parents were so eager to have us come over for dinner tonight… they usually don't seem to want anything to do with us," Kurt commented. Blaine shrugged.

"They'd just better behave with Rian there. I told my mom we'd be bringing him… I don't want him to have to see all the hate they have in them. He's seen enough hate in his life already."

"It's not like we're going to be able to protect him from that forever… we're a gay couple and he's _going_ to see everything that goes along with that, no matter how hard we try to hide it. We just have to make sure that he sees how much _love_ there is in this world, too." Blaine smiled as Kurt reached over Rian to hold his hand.

"I hate that we live in a world where that's something we even have to discuss or think about."

"We _shouldn't_ have to think about things like that. But that's how our world works… and until we make things change, we have to do what we can to keep it from hurting the people we care about."

Blaine was thankful that the remainder of the plane ride was fairly uneventful; Rian slept the rest of the plane ride, and there really wasn't any turbulence to cause problems. Of course, when they finally landed it was a little difficult to get the boy to wake up. "We'll wait until more of these people get off the plane before we try to go… are you feeling better?"

"Yeah… I think the pretzel helped."

"We'll get something else to eat on the way back to my parents' house… Carole's going to be too busy making Thanksgiving dinner to worry about cooking for today, so my dad told her that he would take us out for lunch today. We're going to Blaine's parents' house tonight, and then we'll have all day tomorrow with my family and Rachel's dads."

"Dads?"

"Rachel's the daughter of a gay couple… they're kind of an interesting family," Kurt replied. "You'll just have to see when you meet them tomorrow to understand."


	13. Thanksgiving Morning

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: And I uploaded the last chapter without an author's note. *facepalm* Oh well… it's no big deal, given the fact that the last chapter really wasn't much other than filler.**

Kurt smiled as he walked into the kitchen, giving Carole a quick hug as he walked over to the fridge. "What do you need me to do? What's still not finished?" he asked, pulling out a bottle of orange juice to pour himself a glass.

"I've actually got everything under control for once… Rachel's dads called this morning saying that they wouldn't be coming after all. Something about one of their friends being ill out of town, that they had to go help take care of him."

"Does Rachel know yet?" Kurt asked, glancing over at the stairs. As far as Kurt knew, Rachel and Finn were still upstairs in bed.

"They said they would call her in a little while, when she got up. Apparently she's been sleeping in later than usual for the past couple of months," Carole commented. Kurt shrugged, trying his best not to smile because he knew that it was probably because Rachel was pregnant and Carole didn't know that yet.

"She's been working really hard… the show she's in is exhausting, and you know how Rachel is when it comes to work," Kurt replied. "She's probably just tiring herself out more than usual and trying to make up for it by getting some more sleep."

"Hopefully. You're getting enough rest, aren't you? I know you just finished previews on your new show…" Carole began.

"Now that things have calmed down, I get plenty of sleep. Although things are going to be difficult when the trial starts, depending on how long they need Rian in court. But it's temporary… we'll get through all of that. We've made it this far."

"Just don't overwork yourself, sweetie… it isn't going to do you any good to make yourself sick," Carole replied. Kurt smiled as the woman gently put a hand on his shoulder.

"I won't. Don't worry too much, Carole. We're all adults. And most of us can take care of ourselves," Kurt joked. Finn chose that moment to come into the kitchen, walking over to the large bowl of mashed potatoes Carole had been finishing up and sticking a finger down into it and getting some of the potatoes onto it and sticking it in his mouth.

"Finn, keep out of Thanksgiving dinner… it's only an hour or so before we eat, and you need to save something for the rest of us."

"But I'm hungry…"

"But you can wait an hour, Finn… get a banana or something," Kurt replied.

"And both of you boys need to get out of my kitchen so that I can get this meal ready. Besides, you need to get Blaine, Rachel, and Rian up and ready for dinner. So go now…" Kurt did as he was told, making his way back up the stairs to his old bedroom. He pushed open the door, smiling at the fact that at some point in the hour or so since Kurt had gotten up, Rian had found his way into the room and he was sleeping curled up against Blaine's side.

"I think this means we're getting somewhere with him," Blaine whispered. Kurt glanced over and realized that his husband was sitting there smiling at him. "He came in not long after you left and curled up like this, without saying a word. I didn't want to disturb him…"

"I'd say let him sleep, but I think we need to get him up and make sure he takes his medicine… besides, dinner's going to be ready in an hour," Kurt replied, sitting down on the bed on the other side of Rian.

"I hate to wake him up… he seemed so tired when he came in here, like he hadn't slept at all last night," Blaine replied as he slowly started to sit up and rouse the boy. "I don't know what's going on, but I think we may need to talk to him about it, see if he'll tell us what's wrong. Whatever it is, it's stressing him out and that's only going to make his ulcers worse…"

"We'll talk to him after dinner." Kurt smiled as Rian finally started opening his eyes. "It's time to get up… Carole's almost done with Thanksgiving dinner, and you need to take your medicine before we eat."

"It'll just make me sick after dinner…" Rian began.

"But you'll be even worse off in a few weeks if you don't take it. We're going to take you back to the doctor as soon as we get home and see if they can't put you on something else," Blaine assured him. "We would have already done it if the doctor's office had been open."

"You can come back upstairs and lay down if you don't feel well, okay? This isn't like Blaine's parents' house… dinner isn't going to be stuffy and formal, and you won't have to worry about saying or doing the wrong thing the whole time. It's just going to be relaxed… simple." Kurt smiled as Rian finally sat up, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Go get dressed, okay? We'll see you downstairs in a little while."

Kurt smiled as Rian got up and went to do as he was told. "He's such a good kid… I wish he hadn't been put through all of this," Blaine commented. Kurt nodded, sighing.

"I know. But it's how things are… we can't change everything about his life. The only thing we can change is his future." Kurt leaned over and pressed a kiss against Blaine's lips. "Come on… you need to get up and get dressed, too."

"After the disaster that was dinner with my parents, I'd rather stay in bed," Blaine admitted with a sigh. Kurt nodded.

"But you know it's different with my family. Besides, you don't want to miss seeing the look on Dad and Carole's faces when they find out that Finn and Rachel are going to be making them grandparents in seven or eight months…" Kurt smiled at the way Blaine couldn't help but laugh.

"They're going to freak out about becoming grandparents for real…"

"I can't wait until _we_ can tell them that we're going to give them a grandchild, even if it is through adoption," Kurt replied. "Maybe one day we can afford a surrogate and have a biological child or two. But mostly I'm just ready to be a dad for real – to have a kid that the state can't just take away. I think that's what scares me the most – that they could take Rian away from us without any warning and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it…"

"But they're _not_ going to just take him away… Nadia's been commenting about how well Rian is doing with us, how she doesn't want to do anything to compromise that," Blaine replied.

"But if Nadia gets taken off his case, there's no telling what might happen. Until we can start adoption proceedings, we don't have any guarantees…" Kurt shook his head, sighing. "You should start getting ready. You don't want to make everyone wait dinner on you… especially not with a pregnant woman in the house."

Kurt dug through their bags as Blaine got dressed, looking for the pill bottles that contained all of Rian's medication. "I can't believe how much medication we're having to give him… and that it's making him so sick. I don't see how parents can force medication on their kids that they don't need when it has so many bad side effects."

"Not all parents care or worry as much as we do about what might happen to their kids," Blaine replied. "They don't know how lucky they are to even be able to have kids of their own. They don't have to worry about fighting to keep their children, even though they should." Kurt closed his eyes as Blaine pressed a kiss on the back of his neck. "Stop worrying so much, okay? Today, we're celebrating the fact that we have something to be thankful for… that we have Rian in our lives, and that he's doing okay. We can worry about all of the potential problems the rest of the year."


	14. Go Be a Dad

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: This chapter seemed to take me longer than it really should have for some reason. Probably because I kept getting distracted by homework (how backwards does that sound?).**

"So, Rachel, what are you planning on doing when the show closes? I know you finish right before Christmas. Do you have any idea what you might be doing next?" Carole asked. Kurt smiled as he glanced over at his sister-in-law, who was smiling widely.

"I'm going to take some time off from Broadway. Finn and I are expecting…" Kurt turned to look at Carole as the last few words came out of Rachel's mouth, wondering how his stepmother was going to react to that news. It seemed as though it took a moment for the woman to comprehend what had just been said.

"You're… as in you're having a baby?" Carole asked, jumping up and running over to give Finn and Rachel hugs.

"I'm due at the end of July… but the doctor said it could be August, because first pregnancies tend to go a little longer. I'll probably be getting back to work just in time for the holidays next year… which reminds me that we were kind of hoping to have Christmas at our place this year. I don't want to travel too much while I'm expecting, and I know Kurt probably isn't going to be able to leave the city for very long since his opening night is next week."

"Sounds like a plan. I'm sure we'll be coming to the city a lot starting in the next few months," Burt replied. "After all, we're going to be grandparents. We're going to want to spend as much time as possible in the city with all of you. And hopefully having the grandkids coming over to see us during the summers." Kurt smiled as his father clapped Rian on the shoulder.

"If Rian's still with us, I'm sure we can make some kind of arrangement for him to come visit over the summer," Blaine replied.

"You don't think they would take him away, do you? I'm sure that you're good parents," Caroled commented.

"Nadia wouldn't move him without a problem, but if his case gets transferred to another social worker anything could happen… there's no guarantee that Rian will stay with us long-term unless we can adopt him. And we won't know for sure if that's a possibility until after his father's trial." Kurt watched Rian as he spoke, not sure how the boy felt about the fact that they were telling Kurt's parents all of this information.

"They can't terminate my dad's rights if they can't prove that he's unfit to be a father," the boy piped up. "But I want to stay, if I can." Kurt smiled and reached over to squeeze the boy's shoulder.

"We want you to stay, too. Which is why we start the adoption process as soon as the trial is over."

The rest of the meal was fairly uneventful, with the conversation centering mostly on plans for the next day and whether or not they would be shopping the sales. In the end it seemed as though only Carole, Kurt, and Rachel were planning on going out. By the end of dinner, however, Kurt's focus was pulled to Rian, who was starting to look pale again. Kurt wasn't all that surprised when the boy started to go into the kitchen to help with the dishes, but Kurt stopped him.

"Why don't you go get some rest? You look kind of pale, and I don't want you to make yourself sick."

"But the dishes…"

"You can be excused from your chores if you don't feel well. And your chores only really apply at home… it's nice of you to volunteer, but you need to take care of yourself," Kurt replied, gently guiding the boy away from the kitchen and towards the living room. "You can go chill on the couch to watch football if you want, or go upstairs and lay down. Just take it easy this afternoon so that you don't make yourself sick." Kurt watched as the boy nodded in response to Kurt's instructions and started off towards the living room. Kurt wandered back into the kitchen, where Blaine and Rachel were already helping Carole put everything away.

"You know that you kids don't have to help me… I made this mess, I can certainly clean it up on my own," Carole commented as Kurt started to put away the potatoes.

"You shouldn't have to do everything on your own… and this way we get to spend some more time hanging out with you," Kurt replied. With all four of them working on cleaning up the kitchen, it only took about twenty minutes to get everything put away and all of the dishes in the dishwasher. Kurt sighed, leaning in to kiss his husband quickly. "I need to go check on Rian… he was looking really pale earlier, and I'm kind of worried about him."

"Maybe we should have called the doctor's answering service to see if he could get him a different prescription before we left…" Blaine began.

"When were we supposed to have time for that?" Kurt asked with a sigh. He shook his head. "I'm going to make sure he's okay."

It took Kurt a little while to track the boy down; he'd left the living room and wandered upstairs, into Kurt and Blaine's room where he'd curled up in the bed and fallen asleep, apparently after having gotten sick in the bathroom. Kurt sighed, sitting down on the side of the bed and brushing the boy's curls out of his face. He smiled as Rian stirred a little and looked up at him.

"Hey… you feeling okay?"

"My stomach's still upset." Kurt nodded, walking over to the suitcase and pulling out the bottles of medication they'd had to bring for Rian, checking to see when he needed to take them again.

"Do you want me to see if I can find some pretzels or something for you, to try and settle your stomach?" Kurt asked. "I know you need some water… do you think you could try to eat something, too?" Kurt watched as the boy shrugged, closing his eyes again.

"I just want to sleep…" Rian muttered.

"I know. I'm just going to run get you some water from the kitchen and see if I can find anything that might help your stomach." Kurt hurried downstairs, making a glass of ice water and rummaging through the cabinets to look for some crackers or something that might make Rian feel better.

"Everything okay?" Rachel asked, wandering into the kitchen from where she and Carole had been looking through old boxes of stuff to find some of Finn's baby clothes.

"Rian's not feeling all that well… the antibiotics he's on make him sick to his stomach, and I guess Thanksgiving dinner didn't agree with him," Kurt replied with a sigh. "I hate seeing him like this, feeling so sick. I wish there was some way to make all of it go away, so that he wouldn't have to deal with all of this." Kurt put the glass down on the counter, shaking his head. "I wish that I could make the next month or so go by faster, so that the trial would be over and we could be working on the adoption process… I don't want to be worrying about whether or not they're going to take Rian away, because I want to keep him. I _want_ him to be our son."

"And he will be," Rachel replied. "He practically is already, Kurt. He's so comfortable with the two of you… and from what you've told us about his past, that's a surprise. You and Blaine are clearly doing something right." Kurt smiled at Rachel's praise of them. "Now, go be a dad. I need you and Blaine to get good at that, so that you can give Finn some pointers when this little one comes along."


	15. Old Friends and Flight Plans

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: I'm sorry it's been a bit since I've updated. Life/school/etc. have kind of gotten the best of me lately, and I've just been too tired to do a whole lot of writing. But I finally have another chapter for all of you… the last one of the Ohio trip. Anyways, enjoy!**

Getting ready to fly back to the city from Ohio wasn't all that easy. Even after Blaine had spent his Black Friday running back and forth from pharmacy to pharmacy and playing phone tag with the doctor through his answering service to get Rian a new prescription, the boy still wasn't feeling all that well. The fact that Rian had spent the day on a couch at the shop while Finn and Burt worked on cars probably hadn't helped things all that much, either.

"I'm going to go grab a couple of bottles of water, just in case. I'll be right back," Kurt commented, leaving his carry-on bag right next to Blaine's as Blaine and Rian sat down at the gate to wait for their plane to board. Blaine just nodded, glancing over at Rian to see if he looked like he was going to be sick.

"I wish you would quit looking at me like that…" the boy commented.

"Like what?"

"Like I'm fragile and I'm going to break or something. I'm just sick… and not even _that_ sick. Give me a couple of days and I'll be fine again," Rian replied. Blaine watched as the boy leaned over and put his head on Blaine's shoulder, closing his eyes.

"It's kind of my job to worry about you…"

"Worrying and hovering are two very different things." Blaine couldn't help but chuckle as he reached over to push some of the boy's curls out of his face.

"Blaine Anderson? Is that you?" Blaine looked up, smiling as he realized that he had, in fact, recognized that Irish accent.

"Rory Flanagan! What's brought you back to Ohio?" Blaine smiled up at the other man as he sat down across the aisle.

"Just came back to visit the Pierces. I sort of forgot about the whole Thanksgiving thing when I was planning my trip, but it worked out because Brittany and Santana were home. I'm guessing that's what brought you to Ohio?" Blaine nodded.

"Yeah… pretty much the only chance we've gotten to come home this year, thanks to Kurt's crazy schedule," Blaine replied. He glanced down at Rian, who seemed interested in their conversation. "Rian, this is our friend Rory… he went to McKinley with us during Kurt's senior year. Rian's our first foster child."

"It's nice to meet you, Rian. Is Kurt here, too?"

"He went to grab some water… Rian hasn't been feeling well," Blaine explained. "So, what about you… how are you doing?"

"I'm good. Da retired last year, so I'm running the restaurant now. He's still around if I need his help, but I do most of the work," Rory replied. "I'm guessing you two are still in New York? I know Kurt was headed that direction when I left…"

"Yeah, we are… I'm teaching, and Kurt's on Broadway right now. And we're hoping that we'll get to adopt Rian soon." Blaine couldn't help but glance down at the boy as he commented on their plan, smiling when he realized that Rian had dozed off listening to their conversation. "Sometimes I worry that he thinks we're going to send him away."

"Rory!" Blaine smiled as Kurt walked up to them, handing the bottles of water over to Blaine and walking over to the Irishman to give him a hug. "It's been too long… how have you been?" Blaine looked down at Rian as Kurt and Rory caught up, biting down on his bottom lip as the boy shifted around uncomfortably. Blaine shifted and put an arm around the boy's shoulders, letting Rian lean against his chest.

The first boarding announcement sort of took everyone by surprise. "I guess that means we need to get ready to leave… it's been good seeing you two again," Rory commented. "If you're ever in Dublin, you should come out to the restaurant. Glee is the biggest thing I miss about being here in Ohio… mostly because of all of the friends I made there."

"We'll definitely remember that if we ever get over to Europe. And if you're ever in the city, you should give us a call. We still have the same phone numbers we did in high school."

"I'll remember that. I think I have a cousin in New York, if I remember correctly, so I'm sure I'll probably end up there at some point." The second boarding announcement was called, and Rory got up. "That would be me… hopefully I'll see you around again soon." Blaine waved at the other man as he boarded the plane.

"We're in the last boarding group… we should probably wake Rian up so that he'll be ready to go when it's time," Kurt commented glancing down at their boarding passes. Blaine nodded, reaching over to gently shake the boy awake as Kurt did his best to gather their things.

"We're getting ready to board… but we'll put you in the center so that you can sleep against either of us once we're on the plane," Blaine commented as the boy started to sit up.

"I'm supposed to be on the aisle seat…" Rian began. "I thought you were supposed to sit in the seat you're assigned."

"It's not that big a deal," Kurt replied, smiling at the boy. "If you'd be more comfortable on the aisle, then you can sit there. Blaine was just thinking that it might be easier for you to sit in the middle… so that you have someone to lean against when you fall asleep." The boy just nodded as they gathered their belongings and fell into the end of the line of people waiting to board the plane. Blaine kept a hand on Rian's shoulder as they walked, mostly because there were so many people and he didn't want them to get separated.

Blaine had a feeling that it was going to be a bad flight from the moment they got onto the plane and he realized that there were a lot of small children seated around them. And when they pulled away from the terminal and stopped for a while, it only seemed to make things worse All of the kids were restless or fussy, and it wasn't very comfortable because they couldn't put their seats back which meant that Rian didn't stop shifting around as he tried to go back to sleep. The pilot announcing that they were at the end of a rather long line of planes waiting to take off definitely didn't make things any easier.

"This would be our luck, wouldn't it?" Kurt commented, rolling his eyes and sighing.

"At least we're flying back on Saturday, not Sunday. So if we're running a little late it isn't that big of a deal." Blaine reached over and gently squeezed his husband's knee.

"It's still frustrating… I hate planes." Blaine nodded, smiling slightly as his husband started to go into the rant that Blaine had heard every time they'd gotten on a plane in the nine years they had known each other.

"I know. But one day you'll be famous and we'll be able to afford to fly first class everywhere we go and you won't mind as much."

"I don't think anything will ever make me enjoy flying," Kurt replied. "I only do it because I love my family _and_ I love the city."

"Why don't you like flying?" Blaine glanced down at Rian, surprised that the boy was still awake given how long they had already been on the plane. He'd quit fidgeting a few moments earlier and Blaine had assumed he'd gone to sleep.

"He's had one too many little kids kicking the back of his seat," Blaine joked.

"My first trip to New York wasn't exactly pleasant… and the plane ride back to Ohio was unbearably tense and silent," Kurt replied. "That trip was my first time on a plane ever, and the whole trip was just kind of a disaster."

"But your second plane trip was a lot more fun, you have to admit." Blaine winked at Kurt over Rian's head, hoping that the boy wouldn't see the looks they were giving each other.

"Yeah, that was a _much_ better memory."


	16. The Stress of Court

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I wrote pretty much the entire chapter on my tablet. Which is difficult, since I don't have a real keyboard for it. But I did get it written while I was waiting for my new charger to arrive, along with part of the next chapter. So, enjoy!**

Blaine couldn't help but be nervous. Rian had gone into the courtroom nearly two hours earlier, and Blaine had no idea what was going on inside that room. He had some idea of how things would go from the prosecutor, but he didn't know what the defense attorney would try to do to the boy. Given Rian's emotional state and health issues recently, all Blaine really wanted to do was go in the room to make sure that Rian was going to be okay despite all of the questioning. But as a witness, Blaine wasn't allowed to be in the room for Rian's testimony.

Blaine looked up as the courtroom doors opened and Rian walked out, sitting on the far end of the bench in the hallway next to Nadia. While Rian hadn't looked all that well when he'd entered the courtroom a couple of hours earlier, he looked significantly worse now that he was coming out after being questioned. Blaine was terrified that something would happen to him, despite how many things they had done to make sure that he would be okay.

"Mr. Anderson." Blaine stood up, following the bailiff into the courtroom to do his part.

* * *

><p>Kurt had known that it was going to be a bad day long before he'd even gone to work. After all, how could it possibly be a good day when Rian and Blaine were spending the bulk of it in court? The fact that he hadn't heard anything from his husband all day didn't help things, either, and Kurt had spent his whole show distracted by his worries about how Rian was doing. By the time Kurt walked into the apartment, he was on the verge of having a panic attack because Blaine wasn't answering his phone.<p>

"Kurt?" Kurt ran back into their bedroom as he heard Blaine's voice. "I'm sorry... My phone is in the kitchen and he fell asleep on me almost as soon as we got inside." Kurt breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Rian curled up against Blaine, fast asleep. He moved over to the bed, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"How did it go today?"

"I'm exhausted, and he refuses to talk about what happened. All I really know is that he's refused to let me out of his sight since I left the courtroom." Kurt sighed, shaking his head.

"Do you need something to eat? I can throw something together really quickly, since you probably haven't had a chance..."

"We ate, but I could really use a chance to get up and go to the bathroom. Think you could let him attach himself to you for a little while?" Kurt nodded, helping Blaine reposition the sleeping pre-teen so that he was clinging to Kurt instead. "Thank you."

Kurt smiled slightly as Rian's grip on him tightened. The boy seemed to need the comfort of having a warm body next to him. Rian opened his eyes slowly, whimpering slightly when he realized that Blaine wasn't there anymore. "Hey..."

"Where's Blaine? Is he okay?"

"Blaine is fine. He just needed to go to the bathroom. How are you feeling?" Kurt asked, stroking the boy's hair.

"My stomach hurts..." Kurt nodded. He had been afraid of that.

"Hurts like you're going to be sick, or actual pain?"

"Both." Kurt sighed; he'd been afraid of that. "Can I stay here tonight? I don't want to be alone."

"I think there's room for three of us. For tonight, anyway. Why don't you go get ready for bed? It's late, and I know at least one of us has to get up in the morning." Kurt leaned over and pressed a kiss on top of Rian's forehead. He walked into the bathroom once Rian was gone, where Blaine was washing his hands. "I told Rian he could sleep with us tonight... I hope that's okay."

"It's fine. I sort of wanted to keep him close tonight, just in case he isn't doing well tonight," Blaine admitted. "He's had such a rough day. I'm worried about how all of this is going to affect him, with his health issues and everything else. If he ends up getting sick from all of the added stress..."

"We'll do whatever it takes to make him healthy again." Kurt watched as Blaine nodded, sighing. "He said that his stomach was hurting. I don't think it's anything we need to worry about yet, but we need to keep an eye on him tonight. That's part of why I asked him if he wanted to stay in here with us tonight." Kurt watched as Blaine leaned over the sink.

"Do you really think we can do this? Can we really raise a kid with serious health issues, that's about to become a teenager? We're just barely scratching the surface of the issues he may have right now, and it's overwhelming..."

"We promised him. We have to do everything we can for him, Blaine." Kurt stood up and put a hand on his husband's shoulder. "It's the exhaustion talking right now. Everything will look a lot better in the morning, when you've gotten some rest."

"You're right. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night and I've spent all day stressing myself out over whether or not Rian is okay." Kurt smiled as his husband kissed him gently. "I'm going to go ahead to bed. Love you."

"I love you, too."

Kurt hurried through his nighttime routine, not sure if he would wake Rian up or not when he climbed into bed. There were so many things they really just didn't know about the boy, even after more than a month of having Rian in their home.

It seemed almost natural for Rian to curl up against Kurt's side in the queen-sized bed as soon as Kurt was comfortable.

"You don't have to keep me, if it's too hard. You can always send me away..."

"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked, looking down at the boy.

"What Blaine said earlier... I'm not going to be upset if you aren't ready to be my dads." Kurt sighed.

"Blaine is stressed out right now. A lot of times we say things we don't mean when we're under a lot of stress. But this is going to be over soon, and once things calm down we'll really know where we stand. I really think we can do this. We just need to get things settled down."

"So you're not going to send me away?"

"We would talk to you before we made any kind of decision that would affect you that much, Rian. And we aren't talking about sending you away, okay? We want you here more than anything. We're just having a hard time getting used to how dramatically things have changed since you came to live with us." Kurt gently ruffled the boy's hair. "How are you feeling? Do you need me to get you anything?"

"I think I just need to get some sleep."


	17. Aftermath

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: Hey guys, I don't know what's going on with chapter 16 right now. Hopefully uploading this chapter will fix the problem, but I'm really not sure what's up with the site right now. I've tried re-uploading and replacing 16 and so far nothing has worked. I know that in the past, uploading another chapter has resolved the issue so HOPEFULLY it's now fixed if you're reading this!**

Kurt hated Blaine's alarm clock with a passion, especially since it went off several hours before Kurt really needed to get out of bed. The fact that he was waking up with an extremely warm body next to him didn't help his mood either. "God, babe, you're burning up..."

"That isn't me, Kurt..." Kurt's eyes shot open when he heard Blaine's voice from across the room, where his husband was in the process of turning off the alarm clock. "Is he really that warm?"

Kurt nodded, glancing down at Rian. "He's sweating, and it feels like he's going to burn me, even through my shirt."

"Shit," Blaine muttered.

"Get ready for work. I'll take him to the ER this time," Kurt replied. He gently pried Rian's arms away from his body, getting up and hurriedly throwing on some real clothes.

"I'll call Nadia and let her know what's going on. Medicaid info is on my desk, and they should be able to get hold of Dr. Bazen, but you have his number and Dr. Holton's if you need them, right?"

"Of course. I'm going to grab his meds from the kitchen before I wake him up," Kurt replied. He put all of the pill bottles and the boy's inhaler into a bag, as well as the insurance and medical information from Blaine's desk.

Blaine had already gotten into the shower by the time Kurt got back into their bedroom. Rian looked so small and helpless in their bed, his cheeks flushed and his hair matted to his forehead with sweat. Kurt hated to wake him, but he didn't really have a choice – the boy was sick, and given his history medical attention was a necessity.

"Come on, buddy... I need you to wake up." Kurt watched as Rian's eyes opened and the boy almost immediately started to whimper in pain. "It hurts?" Rian nodded, and Kurt could see tears forming in his eyes. "We're going to the hospital right now, okay? We're going to get Dr. Bazen to look at you and figure out what's going on." Kurt held out a hand, helping Rian sit up slowly. The boy seemed to be in a lot of pain, and Kurt couldn't help but worry.

"Do you need me to help you get him to the hospital? I can call the school and get them to send a secretary to watch my first class…" Blaine began as he came out of the bathroom. Kurt had been so focused on Rian that he hadn't even noticed the water of the shower turning off.

"I think we can do this," Kurt replied as Rian stood up, leaning against him. Kurt pushed Rian's hair out of his face again, resting the palm of his hand against the boy's forehead for a moment to gauge exactly how serious the situation was. Then Kurt carefully wrapped an arm around Rian and started to lead him towards the door. The boy could barely hold himself up, and he was about to fall over when Blaine came out of their room fully dressed and scooped the boy up.

"Get a cab, I'm going to help you at least get him there…"

"But work…" Kurt began.

"Can wait ten minutes for me to get there, so that we can get him to the hospital." Kurt nodded, grabbing his keys and cell phone and hurrying down the stairs. He rushed out to the street, hailing a cab as quickly as he could. It still took a moment, and by the time Kurt had the back door open Blaine was there with Rian and all three of them got inside. Kurt held onto Rian as Blaine gave the cab driver directions to the hospital.

"It hurts…" Rian whispered. Kurt sighed, stroking the boy's hair.

"I know, buddy. We're going to the hospital right now, and you're going to be fine."

"The kid's not going to puke, is he? What's wrong with him?"

"Don't worry about it… just drive," Blaine replied. Kurt glanced over at his husband, who was watching through the windows as the cab driver made his way through the streets of the city.

"If the kid pukes in my cab, you've gotta pay for it…"

"Fine, whatever… just get us to the hospital."

The rest of the ride was silent, with the cab driver occasionally glancing back at them in his rearview mirror. Finally they pulled up in front of the hospital's emergency entrance. Kurt handed over some money as Blaine got out of the vehicle, carrying Rian inside as quickly as he could.

The boy had already been taken back by the time Kurt got inside and found Blaine. "They just took him? We can't be in there with him?"

"They put him in the second room to your right through the doors," Blaine replied, pulling Kurt through the doors and down a short hallway to the room, where a nurse was in the process of taking the boy's temperature.

"104.6… we've got to get that fever down and figure out what's making your stomach hurt," the nurse commented. Kurt was thankful that she shot the boy a smile and gently pushed back his hair, in an attempt to comfort him.

"He has stomach ulcers," Kurt piped up, walking closer to the bed to take the boy's hand because he couldn't stand the idea of the boy feeling as if he were alone. "We've been treating them, but it's been… problematic. The first set of meds didn't work, the second made him sick. And he's been under a lot of stress for the past few days…"

"What medication is he taking?" Kurt pulled out the bag of different medications, holding it out to the woman so that she could see everything. "He's under Dr. Bazen's care still?" Kurt nodded. "Good… he's on call this morning. I'll get him down here as soon as possible." Kurt felt the boy squeeze his hand and looked down.

"I'm scared…" Rian whispered. Kurt nodded, leaning over to press a kiss against the boy's forehead.

"I know… but that's why we're here. We're going to figure out what's wrong with you, and do whatever we need to do to make you better."

"I'm going to miss the concert…" Kurt turned to look at Blaine, suddenly remembering that Blaine's orchestra classes had a concert the next night.

"There will be other concerts," Blaine replied, walking towards the bed. "You just need to worry about getting better, okay? Your health is way more important than any performance will ever be." Kurt nodded.

"Blaine's right. Even on Broadway, if you're sick you miss performances until you're well enough to come back," he added. He pushed the hair out of the boy's face. "I know it hurts, but try and relax. Try to get some rest." Kurt watched as Rian closed his eyes, turning to look at Blaine.

"I don't think I should leave for work… not when he's doing this badly. I'm not going to leave you alone to deal with this…" Blaine began.

"I'd hate to ask you to miss more school, especially so close to a concert…" Kurt began.

"The kids can deal with it. This is more important… they'll understand. I don't think I could stand to be at work all day, not knowing what's going on. I can't check my phone in the classroom." Kurt nodded. "I'm going to go call the school, let them know we aren't coming today. I'll be right back."


	18. Make the Pain Go Away

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So part of this chapter was written on my tablet while my computer was out of commission, but the vast majority has been written since I finally got it back in working order. Enjoy!**

Blaine really wasn't sure what time it was anymore; at some point after he'd forced Kurt to go to the theatre for the evening show, he'd fallen asleep on the only decently sized couch in the waiting area for the pediatric ICU. All he really knew was that Kurt hadn't gotten back, but that didn't really mean much. Blaine had mentioned that Kurt should go home to get some sleep, that it was really only necessary for one of them to get a shitty night's sleep in the waiting room. Rian was still so heavily drugged that he couldn't possibly know the difference, and they weren't allowed to stay with him all night, anyway.

Blaine had forgotten his watch, and it took him a few minutes to sort out precisely where he had left his cell phone – which had somehow ended up in the bag with Rian's dirty clothes even though Blaine didn't remember putting it there. When he found the phone he discovered that it wasn't nearly as late as he had originally though – only a little after midnight.

"You haven't been waiting up for me, have you?" Blaine smiled as he looked over at the doorway, where Kurt was making his way inside with a backpack he hadn't had earlier.

"I just woke up. What's in the bag?"

"Change of clothes, necessary toiletries, cell phone chargers, and a laptop. Plus some change for the vending machines. Basically everything we need to survive another extended visit in the hospital," Kurt replied, walking over and putting the bag down next to the couch. "It's why I was so late getting back here. I had to rush past everyone waiting at the stage door, but Melena said she would explain if anyone was upset about it."

"You didn't _have_ to skip stage door… I know you really enjoy all of that."

"I feel better being here. I was so worried about him, the whole time I was performing. I was probably complete shit tonight, to be honest, but I just couldn't keep my mind on what I was supposed to be doing…" Blaine smiled.

"I know the feeling." Blaine pulled his husband down to sit on the couch next to him, wrapping his arms around the taller man. "He's special… Rian, I mean. I think I said some things yesterday that he might have heard, and I'm kicking myself for it…"

"He did hear… I tried to explain that you were just stressed out and upset from everything that had happened. I hope he understood, but we'll need to talk to him again once he's feeling better. Hopefully we'll be able to tell him some good news…"

"Hopefully." Blaine pressed a kiss against Kurt's temple, just as someone walked into the room.

"Sorry… Rian's waking up, asking for you." Blaine looked up, smiling at the petite blonde nurse that had been kind to him since her shift had started at seven. He let go of Kurt and stood up just as the other man's phone started to ring.

"You go ahead… it's Dad, and I need to answer. They're probably still freaking out about how Rian's doing. I forgot to call them back before I left to go to the theatre." Blaine nodded, following the nurse back through the security-coded doors and walking over to the curtain that separated Rian's bed from the rest of the ward.

"Hey, buddy. How're you feeling?" Blaine asked as soon as he walked through the curtain. He took the boy's hand as Rian reached out for him, squeezing Rian's hand gently.

"It hurts…"

"I know. But this is the end of it, okay? Once you heal from this surgery, it's all going to be over and you're going to get better."

"Court…?" Blaine reached over and pushed back Rian's curls with his free hand.

"I haven't heard anything yet. They said it would probably be another day or two before they get things wrapped up and get a verdict."

"Tell me…"

"Of course… as soon as we hear anything we'll let you know. As soon as we know what's going on there, we'll start talking about what happens next." Blaine leaned over and pressed a kiss against the boy's forehead, thankful that the fever he'd been running the night before had gone down dramatically. The boy was a little warm, but the antibiotics and other medications being pumped into the Rian's body were actually helping.

"Hey." Blaine turned as he heard Kurt's voice, smiling at the man. "Carole's going to come a little early for Christmas, to help us take care of Rian while he's recovering."

"She doesn't have to…" Blaine began.

"They changed her plane tickets before they called… and arranged for Finn to pick her up from the airport so that we wouldn't have anything to worry about," Kurt replied. Despite the fact that he didn't want Carole to feel like she _had_ to come help them, Blaine had to admit to himself that he was thankful for Kurt's stepmother at that moment.

"I have to admit, the thought of having her here to help out does make me feel better," Blaine replied.

"I know. It'll be nice to have another adult around." Blaine turned back towards Rian, who seemed to have fallen asleep again. "I think he's asleep again already…"

"It's just the anesthesia working its way out of his system." Blaine looked up as the nurse from earlier walked through the curtains, immediately walking over to the machines on the other side of the bed. "He's going to sleep a lot for the next few days, between that and the painkillers he'll be on while he's healing. If you want to go back to the waiting room, I can come get you again if he wakes back up."

Blaine started to put Rian's hand down, but the boy's grip tightened. "I don't think he's actually asleep."

"Okay… just let me know if you all need anything."

"Thank you," Kurt replied. Blaine put an arm around his husband's waist as they stood there, wondering if Rian was going to wake up or if he was going to fall back to sleep. "Did he say anything before I got here?"

"He complained about being in some pain, and then he asked about court. That's about it…" Blaine felt Rian squeeze his hand again and looked at the boy, who was opening his eyes again.

"It hurts…" the boy whimpered.

"We know… it's going to be okay," Kurt replied. Blaine looked around the bed, spotting the button that had been in Rian's hand earlier and putting it back in the boy's hand. He could see Rian pressing the button as soon as he felt it there, closing his eyes again.

"Hit the button as much as you need it, okay? You don't have to be in pain."

"I want to go home…"

"We want to take you home, too. But right now you need to be here, so that Dr. Bazen can keep an eye on how you're doing and make sure that you're going to be okay," Kurt replied.

"Don't leave me…"

"We won't… we'll stay right here until you fall asleep. And we'll be just down the hall if you wake up and you need us, okay? We're going to stay close… we aren't going to leave you. Ever." Blaine leaned over and pressed a kiss against the boy's forehead.

"We love you, buddy," Kurt added. Blaine smiled as his husband reached out to put a hand on the boy's leg and let Rian know that they were both there for him. After a few minutes, Blaine felt the boy's grip on his hand relax as the pain medication finally put him back to sleep.

"I think he's finally let himself fall asleep again," Blaine commented.

"We should probably go get some sleep ourselves… I know you need to get up in the morning to go to work. It's too late to cancel the concert tomorrow night, and you need to rehearse with everyone one last time." Blaine nodded, gently putting Rian's hand underneath the covers and leaning in to kiss Kurt.

"You're right. I just feel bad leaving him so soon after he's had surgery… he was so afraid _before_ he went into surgery and I feel like I haven't been here enough to assure him that he's okay and that we aren't going to leave him or send him away because they won't let us stay with him…"

"It'll be okay… we can still show him that we care about him, even if we can't be with him all the time right now."

"I want to make everything better, to make his pain go away and protect him from all of the pain that I _know_ he's still going to have to deal with," Blaine replied.

"I know. I feel the same way."


	19. Sleep

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I really shouldn't be writing this. I should be doing homework, because I have to leave for work in about 5 hours and I've done NOTHING this weekend. Well, nothing school related; I've gotten lots of other things done, but schoolwork is kind of more important.**

If there was one thing Carole Hummel truly enjoyed, it was having someone to take care of. It was part of the reason she had become a nurse in the first place, and it was a large part of the reason she had immediately decided to go to New York a little over a week earlier than originally planned to help Kurt and Blaine take care of Rian after his surgery.

Carole had stayed at the boys' apartment while they checked Rian out of the hospital, making sure that everything was ready so that Rian would be as comfortable as possible as soon as he got home. She'd done everything she could think of – washing and replacing the sheets on the boy's bed, moving every extra pillow she could find into either the living room or Rian's bedroom, preparing a couple of meals that Rian would be able to eat, and cleaning as much of the apartment as she could while she waited for them all to get home.

"I've got the door… come on in." Carole hurried out to the living area of the apartment, walking over to Blaine as the man slowly put Rian down to walk the rest of the way.

"Sorry it took us so long… the elevator's out of service, and Rian wanted to try walking part of the way up," Blaine explained, never letting go of the boy as they stood there.

"Rian, would you be more comfortable out here on the couch or in your own room?" Carole asked, putting an arm around the boy's shoulders.

"I just want to lie down…" Carole nodded, helping the boy make his way over towards the couch, where she had left a couple of pillows just in case.

"Why don't you rest over here on the couch for a little while, and I'll get you something to eat." The boy shook his head, closing his eyes as he sat down on the couch.

"He started feeling sick coming up the stairs… it might be better to just get some water right now," Blaine commented.

"Okay… some water, then. But you'll need to eat something before you take your medicine later, so that it doesn't make you feel worse." Carole gently helped the boy lie down, covering him up with the throw she had pulled out of the closet earlier. Then she smoothed back his hair and smiled at him before standing back up and starting over to the kitchen.

"You don't have to do everything, Carole… we really just need help during the week, when we're both working," Kurt commented, getting out a glass before Carole could even get into the kitchen.

"I came to help… that's the whole point in me being here."

"And we really appreciate that. But we don't want you to feel like you have to take care of him all the time, okay? We don't want to take advantage of you," Blaine added.

"I know you boys are capable of handling this by yourselves. But I miss having someone to take care of like this, at least every once in a while… I _want_ to do this. I want to get to spend time with Rian, since he'll hopefully be my grandson one day soon." Carole watched as Kurt smiled slightly, nodding.

"We're filing the petition to terminate his dad's rights tomorrow… we talked to Rian about it as soon as his dad was found guilty, and the lawyer is going to bring all the paperwork over for us to sign before Blaine goes to work."

"And once that's settled, we can petition to adopt him," Blaine added. Carole smiled at the idea, taking the glass that Kurt had been filling up with water. "The only real concern is whether or not what's happened is enough to terminate his dad's rights without giving him a second chance. Nadia seems convinced that it is, but it's up to the judge."

"But you're on the way… that's the important part." Carole walked back over to the couch with the glass of water, setting it down on the coffee table within Rian's reach when she realized that he was asleep.

"Is he asleep?" Kurt asked, walking over.

"I think so… it looks like he exhausted himself," Carole replied.

"Good… he didn't have a good night last night. I don't think any of us got much sleep." Carole smiled as Kurt walked over and looked at the boy over the back of the couch. "I think I'm going to go take a nap until I have to leave to go to the theatre… wake me up if he needs anything."

"You get some rest. I'll take care of anything Rian might need… that's the whole point in me being here right now," Carole reminded him. "I can get my book out of the spare room and sit out here with him. You two have been at the hospital with him for the past few days… go get some rest, both of you." Carole smiled as both Kurt and Blaine did as they were told, leaving her to go get her book and settle down in the empty chair near Rian's head to wait for something to do.

Carole had to admit that she was surprised that Rian didn't wake up before Kurt had to leave for the theatre, even after Kurt stopped to check on him (despite Carole's assurances that Rian was fine) and kiss his forehead on the way out the door. It wasn't until almost dinnertime that the boy made any indication that he might be waking up.

"He's still out?" Blaine asked, walking out of the master bedroom looking as though he had actually gotten some rest.

"He's starting to stir, but he hasn't woken up yet… when can he have more of his pain medication?"

"He could have had it two hours ago. I figured he would have woken up before that asking for something…" Blaine began. Carole watched as Blaine leaned over the back of the couch, watching Rian sleep for a moment as the boy started to moan and open his eyes. "Hey, kiddo… how are you feeling?"

"Hurts…" the boy whispered. Carole got up, walking over to the kitchen counter where Kurt had left Rian's medication to grab the pill bottles, checking the labels until she found the only pain medication in the bunch.

"I know, buddy. Carole's getting the pills for you right now, okay?" Carole could feel her heart breaking as Rian started to cry as she was walking back across the room.

"I just want to sleep…"

"I know." Carole watched Blaine gently push the curls off the boy's forehead as she sat down on the side of the couch.

"This will help, sweetie." Carole watched as the boy swallowed the pill quickly, following with a drink of water. "Do you feel like eating anything yet? I'd hate for you to start feeling sick again…"

"I just want to sleep…"

"I know."


	20. Revelations

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: I'm sorry for the delay on this chapter! I have a paper due on Valentine's Day, and it's been distracting me quite a bit lately. I've also been writing a lot of my Niff drabbles, because they're quick and easy to crank out and seem to be getting a better response than this story… although this one is getting a MUCH better response than my attempt at writing a Doctor Who fic, which I'm afraid I'm going to have to abandon until I have a little more time to really **_**think**_** about what I want to happen there.**

Rian really hated being stuck either in bed or on the couch all the time. While it was nice to have Carole around, given the fact that she took a lot of the stress off of everyone else in the apartment, Rian didn't particularly like the fact that he was the reason for all of that stress. He hadn't ever wanted to cause anyone any problems, but it seemed as though that was all he was capable of doing anymore.

"I can sit at the table…" Rian began, as Carole started bringing his lunch over to the coffee table.

"You're supposed to be resting, sweetie. I don't want you to overdo it so soon after having surgery," Carole replied, putting the bowl down where Rian could reach it from the couch. "Do you want anything else? Maybe some milk?"

"Not unless you can make things go back to normal…" Rian closed his eyes as Carole pushed back a few of his curls, gently sinking down onto the couch next to him.

"I wish I could do that. I know that all of this isn't ideal, but it'll all be over soon," Carole replied. Rian couldn't help but smile as the woman stroked his hair. "In a couple of weeks, you'll be able to go back to school and do whatever you want. But you have to give your body time to heal, or you'll just make yourself even worse."

"I feel like I haven't done anything in the past few months but try to 'heal'. And I never seem to do a very good job of it, because I keep getting sick."

"I know you're frustrated… I think anyone would be in your situation. But you just have to trust that things are going to be okay and keep doing everything you can to keep yourself healthy. You're going to be better in no time."

"It doesn't feel like no time…"

"You should eat your lunch… it won't be very good if it gets cold, and you need to eat something to keep your strength up." Rian sighed, slowly straightening up and opening his eyes so that he could eat the soup Carole had prepared. "I hope it tastes alright… I had to use a can, because I didn't have the ingredients to make it from scratch and I wasn't going to run to the store and leave you here alone." Rian ate a spoonful slowly, smiling at how good it was.

"It's good. Really good." Rian ate slowly; he didn't want to eat too much and make himself feel sick.

"Is there anything else you need?" Rian had just barely started to move to get up before Carole was getting off the couch to get whatever it was he needed.

"No… I was just going to go get some water."

"I can do that," Carole replied, starting towards the kitchen.

"I'd like to do it…" Rian began, continuing to get up. "I need to get up and move around… I can't stay on the couch or in the bed all the time." Rian was thankful that Carole just nodded, letting him make his way into the kitchen to get his own drink but still following him to help in case he needed her.

Even though he was sore, Rian appreciated being allowed to get up and move around – even if it was just for long enough to get his own glass of water. He had been so used to doing everything for himself living with his dad, and it hadn't been easy to get used to having people do things _for_ him without expecting anything out of him in return.

"You seem to be getting around better than you were… you don't seem to be as stiff and sore anymore." Rian smiled as Carole gently rubbed his back.

"I just wish that it would go a little faster."

"Remember that you said that a few weeks into January, when you're wishing that you could stay home from school again." Rian shook his head.

"I would never _want_ to stay home from school… school's always been safe…" Rian didn't even really think about what he was saying, knowing that he didn't have to worry about saying something wrong that would upset someone. "Before I came here, school was the only place I could get away from my dad. It was the only place I could go where I didn't have to worry whether or not I would be able to get into the kitchen to eat without getting hit for something stupid." Rian couldn't stop the tears that started to flow as he spoke, shaking his head. To be honest, he didn't even care that he was crying, because for the first time he knew that he wouldn't get in trouble for showing that he was upset or in pain.

"Oh, sweetie…" Carole began. Rian moved so that he could hug her, letting himself cry as she hugged him and pressed a kiss on top of his head. "You will _never_ have to feel that way again… Kurt and Blaine love you so much, and we all want you to be a part of this family. One of us will _always_ be here for you."

"It will never be okay for someone to hit you, ever again." Rian was surprised to hear Kurt's voice as the man put a hand on his shoulder; he hadn't even heard Kurt come home from rehearsal. "Blaine and I would _never_ raise a hand to you, and anyone who tries to hurt you will have to deal with _all_ of us." Rian smiled at the man's words.

"Why don't we go back to the couch so that you can get some rest and finish your lunch?" Carole suggested. Rian nodded, closing his eyes as Carole took the glass of water he'd poured for himself and started back towards the living room. Rian felt Kurt put an arm around his shoulders.

"You can talk to us about anything, okay? I'm not going to push you, but whenever you're ready to talk about things, Blaine and I will be here for you."


	21. Christmas Eve

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: Wow… that last chapter got a MAJOR response! I didn't mean by my last note that I wasn't getting any response; it's just that this story has gotten significantly less of a response than the drabbles. I'm also NOT ending this story – it's the Doctor Who story that's at risk of being cut; I've actually already got quite a bit planned in my head for this story.**

Christmas seemed to sort of sneak up on Kurt and Blaine. With everything that happened in the couple of months leading up to the holiday, it seemed as though it was Christmas Eve and the whole family was gathered in their living room before they really even knew it was happening. If it hadn't been for Carole, they probably wouldn't have even had a tree decorated for the occasion.

"So… are we going to open presents tonight or tomorrow afternoon?" Kurt rolled his eyes at his stepbrother's excitement over the idea of the large pile of gifts underneath the tree that were just waiting to be handed around.

"Finn…" Rachel chided, shooting him a look. Kurt knew that the two of them had already celebrated Hanukkah a couple of weeks earlier.

"You know how it works, Finn – one present on Christmas Eve after dinner, and the rest on Christmas Day. Just like we've always done it," Carole replied from the kitchen, where she and Blaine were working on the ham for the next day's meal. Kurt just smiled from where he was sitting at the table, working on all of the Christmas cards that had never gotten done before the holidays. All in all, it was a nice picture – Burt, Finn, and Rachel sitting on the couch watching one of those ridiculous holiday movies while Rian slept in the chair, curled up in a little ball.

"I just thought that since it's Rian's first Christmas with all of us we might change things up a little…"

"Finn, you just don't want to wait until tomorrow to open the rest of your presents," Kurt replied with a smirk. "We all know what you're really thinking. You just really want dinner to be ready so that we can all eat and you can get your hands on the box that Dad and Carole have for you under the tree." Kurt smiled at the way Finn blushed in response to his teasing.

"We'll be ready to eat in about ten minutes… will one of you wake Rian up and get him to go wash his hands?" Blaine asked. Kurt started to get up, until he realized that Rachel was already across the room and gently shaking the boy's shoulder.

"Wake up, sleepyhead… it's almost time for dinner." Kurt put down his pen to watch the way Rachel interacted with Rian, smiling slightly. Despite the number of times she had protested that she didn't want to have children until she was in her thirties and had firmly established herself on Broadway, the way she acted towards Rian made it clear that she was going to be good at mothering.

It was kind of difficult to have the whole family eat together; Blaine and Kurt had a larger apartment than Finn and Rachel, but their table still only accommodated four people. So instead of eating at the table, they all sat around the living room with their plates, chatting as they ate until everyone was full.

"I think someone is about to fall asleep on us again," Blaine commented, walking past Rian and taking the boy's plate before it tipped over and spilt all over the floor. Unlike everyone else in the room, Rian hadn't been able to finish everything he had been served. "If we're going to open any presents, we should start now. Before he goes to sleep on us."

"'M awake…" Rian muttered. Kurt smiled as he saw the boy attempt to keep his eyes open.

"You can sleep if you want to, kiddo… you don't _have_ to open a present tonight if you're too tired," Burt replied. It was obvious that Rian was a little surprised.

"I have a present under the tree?"

"Of course you do," Kurt replied, walking over to the tree and starting to pass out presents while Carole and Blaine moved the dishes back to the kitchen. It only took a few moments for everyone to have something to open, including Rian. Kurt watched anxiously as the boy carefully ripped away the wrapping paper from his present, almost as if he was afraid that whatever was in the box would bite him. Finally all of the paper was gone, leaving just the black box that contained Rian's present – a tablet computer.

"We already set it up, with parental locks on it of course," Blaine commented, watching Rian's surprised expression at how nice the present really was.

"This… this is for me?"

"Of course," Kurt replied, smiling over at the boy who still just looked confused. "You'll still be able to use our laptop when you need to write something for school, but this is for entertainment, after your homework is done or when we travel." Kurt could see tears starting to well up in Rian's eyes, and he hurried over to the chair to comfort the boy. "Hey… what's wrong? Why are you upset?"

"N-no one's ever given me s-something so n-nice before…"

Kurt nodded, gently moving Rian over so that he could sit down next to the boy and pull him onto his lap. "I know… we wanted you to have something really nice. Something that was just yours," Kurt replied. He held the boy, letting him cry for as long as he needed to.

Kurt didn't really pay attention as the others started to unwrap their presents, focusing more on making sure that Rian was okay. Eventually the boy calmed down, falling asleep against Kurt's shoulder.

"I've never seen a kid get upset over getting a present before," Burt commented.

"I'm not really surprised, given some of the other comments he's mad about his dad… poor thing's been put through hell, and he's only twelve," Carole replied. Kurt nodded, gently stroking the boy's hair.

"We should probably put him to bed," Blaine added, walking over to where Kurt was still sitting with the boy on his lap. "I'm just going to let him sleep… we'll make sure he brushes his teeth really well in the morning, after breakfast. I just hate to make him wake up again." Kurt nodded, letting his husband pick the boy up and carry him into his bedroom.

"As upset as he was tonight, I wonder how he's going to react to tomorrow morning… I think most of what's under the tree is for Rian this year," Kurt commented, sighing. "I just hope that we can change that. He's a kid… most kids associate Christmas with presents. Before this year it was just a time of year when he didn't get to go to school and hide from his dad."


	22. Christmas Day

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So people asked specifically to see the rest of Christmas, and I thought it was important for someone to talk to Rian about his reaction to actually having presents under the Christmas tree. Not my favorite chapter, but I'm happy with it. Enjoy!**

Rian wasn't sure what he should do when he woke up the next morning. He wasn't used to having so many people in the house all the time, and he didn't want to get in anyone's way. So instead of going out to the living room like he normally would, Rian grabbed a book and curled up in his bed, trying to ignore the fact that he was hungry so that he wouldn't disturb anyone else.

Rian wasn't sure how long he sat there reading before someone knocked on his bedroom door and opened it slowly. "Rian? Are you ready for breakfast?" Rian nodded, starting to get up as Kurt walked into the room. "Can I talk to you for a minute first?" Rian nodded slowly as Kurt walked over and sat down next to him on the bed. "I know you got upset last night with the presents, and I wanted to make sure you were okay…"

"I just wasn't expecting a present," Rian replied, shrugging.

"You do know that there are going to be a lot more presents today, right? That was the big one, but there are still a lot of boxes under the tree with your name on them." Rian turned to look at Kurt, a little surprised. "It's your first Christmas with us, and we all wanted it to be special. We wanted to show you that you were special to us… all of us."

"But I'm not part of the family…"

"Why not? We want you to be part of this family, Rian… all six of us. Just because we aren't your biological or adoptive family doesn't make us love you any less. The day the judge signs the papers and makes you available for adoption, we're going to fill out the paperwork to make you our son, okay? That was the whole reason we decided to become foster parents and that's been our intention from the moment you moved in with us. And unless you tell us that isn't something you want – and I'm not talking about saying something you don't mean because you're angry with us – we're going to keep working towards that goal."

"I just… it's hard," Rian admitted. "It's hard to believe that things have changed this much. We didn't have Christmas presents… we didn't even always have food in the kitchen."

"I know. If you're too uncomfortable, we can figure out some other arrangement for you to open your presents. You don't even have to open them all today if that's too much. We don't want you to be upset today… this is supposed to be fun." Rian closed his eyes as he felt Kurt pressing a kiss against the side of his forehead. That had taken some getting used to, given the fact that Rian had never been the recipient of physical affection before. But he liked it, even if he did sometimes tense up when one of them tried to touch him.

"Breakfast's ready." Rian looked up as Carole ducked her head into the room.

"We'll be there in a minute," Kurt replied. Rian turned back to Kurt as Carole left, wondering if there was anything else the man intended to say. "You okay?" Rian nodded. "Okay… go wash your hands. And let us know if you aren't comfortable, okay? We won't know if you don't say anything, and the last thing we want is for you to be upset."

"I'm sorry." Rian didn't bother to look at Kurt as he apologized, unsure of what the man would say in response.

"This isn't your fault… we didn't think about the fact that you might not be used to getting Christmas presents, and we didn't prepare you for that idea. You have no reason to be sorry."

Rian nodded, getting up and going across the hall to the bathroom to get ready for breakfast. He was a little surprised when he walked out into the living area and found that all of the adults were already out there waiting for him. Finn and Rachel had gone back to their house the night before and weren't there yet, so the chair from Blaine's desk had been brought in so that they could all sit at the table for breakfast.

"Merry Christmas, Kid," Burt commented, smiling as Rian walked up to the table and sat down. "You feeling better today?" Rian nodded silently.

Breakfast was more relaxed than normal, given the fact that no one had to go anywhere that day. They were just waiting for Finn and Rachel to come over so that they could finish the Christmas celebrations, which didn't take very long considering how early it was.

"Someone couldn't wait to get here," Rachel commented, smirking as the two walked into the apartment while everyone else finished breakfast.

"It's Christmas!" Finn replied. Rian watched as most of the adults rolled their eyes. "So, when do we start opening presents?"

"We still have to finish breakfast and cleaning up, Finn," Kurt replied.

"Rian, don't forget to take your medicine. And you need to brush your teeth, too… we forgot about that last night because you were so tired," Blaine added. Rian hurried through those tasks, knowing that Finn would be antsy to get started unwrapping presents. Rian didn't want to be the reason anyone else had to wait, even if he was still a little unsure about actually having presents of his own to unwrap. The idea was just too foreign for him to really grasp; he'd never really gotten presents before, or at least not that he remembered. Finally everyone was gathered in the living room as Finn passed out all of the presents.

The growing stack of presents at Rian's feet was a little unnerving; he knew that he really hadn't done anything to deserve so many nice things and that made him feel guilty, even though he also knew that it really didn't matter if he'd done anything to earn them because they were _gifts_. Even after his talk with Kurt that morning, it was still confusing.

"Rian, why don't you start, since you're the youngest…" Burt began. Rian sort of felt like a deer in the headlights; he hadn't really expected to have the whole family watch him while he opened the presents they had brought for him. Thankfully Kurt seemed to sense that he was uncomfortable and jumped to his rescue.

"Actually, why don't we just open everything at the same time? There are a lot of gifts here to unwrap, and it'll take forever to get through all of them," Kurt replied. Rian had a feeling that the look Kurt was giving his father was meant to be a signal of some sort, but he didn't understand it.

"I think that sounds like a good idea," Carole added.

By the time all was said and done, Rian was surrounded by a pile of new clothes, books, and gift cards – more than he'd ever seen in his entire life. And he sort of felt guilty that they had spent so much money on him. It just felt… wrong.


	23. Can't Be Easy

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I'm writing this while watching some weird princess movie on Netflix (it's some ABC Family original movie… I dunno, it looks interesting but it's kind of weird). I've actually been planning this chapter for a while now, but I didn't want to put it before the Christmas chapters for various reasons. So, I hope you enjoy!**

"We have a problem."

"Not exactly the type of thing I like to hear first thing in the morning," Blaine replied, letting Nadia into the apartment. It was the day after Christmas, and Blaine hadn't exactly expected to see Rian's caseworker until _much_ later in the day for their scheduled meeting.

"I'm sorry… but this is a serious issue and I thought you and Kurt would appreciate knowing about it as soon as possible." Blaine nodded, walking back to their bedroom to pull Kurt out of the bed.

"Babe, Nadia's here and she needs to talk to us…" Blaine said, pressing a kiss against the side of his husband's forehead.

"It's too early… I don't have to get up for another hour."

"She seems pretty upset about whatever it is…" Kurt finally got up, following Kurt out to the kitchen table and sitting down across from Nadia.

"Okay… what's going on?"

"The birth certificate you have for Rian… it's fake." Blaine raised an eyebrow, confused.

"What are you talking about?"

"Rian wasn't born in New York… he wasn't even born in the United States. According to Immigration, Rian should have gone back to Ireland when he was a year old and his tourist visa expired." Blaine glanced at Kurt, who seemed to be just as shocked about what was going on as he was.

"Wait, what does that mean? They aren't going to come take him away, are they?" Kurt asked.

"I'm working on it… we got a temporary injunction to keep Immigration from doing anything until we can determine if he still has family in Ireland, but that won't stop them from deporting him eventually unless we can get him permanent resident status. And Ireland doesn't allow adoption by gay couples, so we may have to figure out a way around that as well," Nadia explained. Blaine sighed, shaking his head.

"It can't ever be easy, can it?"

"We're going to get this all worked out… it's just going to take some time. I thought that you needed to know what was going on, so that you could prepare yourselves and Rian for the possibility that something might go wrong."

"I'm not going to get to stay?" Blaine turned around as he heard Rian's voice, noting the tears in the boy's eyes.

"We don't know what's going to happen yet," Kurt replied. "But we're going to do everything we can to adopt you." Blaine motioned for the boy to come over to the table and sit with them, and Rian ended up sitting on Blaine's lap.

"What's wrong? Why do I have to leave?"

"You aren't leaving right now… but Nadia just found out that your parents brought you here illegally, and it's going to make things difficult," Blaine replied, smoothing down Rian's hair. "Nadia's worked it out so that nothing can happen unless they find relatives in Ireland, and we're going to work on getting your immigration status fixed so that you can stay permanently. But at this point there aren't any guarantees that everything will work out the way we originally planned."

"This just means that it's going to take a little more work for us to get all of this sorted out so that we can be your parents for good," Kurt added. "We're not giving up… we will _never_ give up as long as there's a chance we can make this work. And for now, this isn't going to change anything that happens day to day around here."

"And if things don't work out?" Rian asked.

"We'll worry about that if and when it comes up, okay? We aren't going to stress out about something that we can't change anyway until we know that it's going to happen."

"Rian, I'm going to do everything I can go make sure that things work out," Nadia added. "It's my job to make sure that you're safe, and no matter what happens that is my number one priority. You haven't done anything wrong, and you shouldn't be punished for a mistake that your parents made."

"But they could send me away… if they found family in Ireland, they could send me back there even though I've lived here for most of my life and I don't know anyone there…" Rian began.

"We're going to try and stop that from happening," Nadia replied. Blaine hugged Rian close, trying to comfort him. "I can't guarantee that it won't happen, but I promise you that we are going to do everything we can to stop that from happening."

"Rian, even if we have to go through adoption proceedings twice, we're going to do everything we can to make this happen. There is _nothing_ that will stop us from doing everything we can to make you our son." Blaine pressed a kiss against the boy's temple, trying to prove that he was serious.

"We love you, buddy. And a setback like this isn't going to change that," Kurt added.

"I should go… I need to see if there's anything else I can do today to get this solved, and I have meetings with a couple of other families scheduled for today. Rian… we'll get this sorted out, okay? Don't stress about all of this and make yourself sick again. You don't have anything you need to worry about right now." Blaine watched as Rian nodded.

"Why don't I make some breakfast? We'll all be a lot more clearheaded once we've all eaten," Kurt suggested as he walked Nadia to the door.

"That sounds like a plan."


	24. Rushed Mornings

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I started this chapter before I'd finished the paper I have due in a couple of days, thinking that I would probably finish this before I got around to finishing the paper. But somehow I ACTUALLY managed to pull myself away from this to finish the paper – apparently my priorities were in order for once, lol. Of course, now I'm writing this as I finish the chapter when my costuming homework still isn't started and I've left my presentation half-done. But I got the most important assignment finished, at least.**

"You look good in those new clothes… I think you need a belt to keep the jeans up, but once you get your appetite back that shouldn't be a problem," Blaine commented, digging through Rian's top drawer to try and find him something to keep his pants up.

"I don't think it's in there…" Rian began. Blaine looked around the room, sighing. To be honest, it was kind of a mess and Blaine really wasn't sure where to begin to help Rian looking for a belt.

"Okay… we need to find one of your belts because the others won't fit you properly. And I think that this afternoon you need to start working on cleaning this room up if you want to keep your TV privileges." Blaine glanced at Rian, hoping that he hadn't upset the boy. Rian just nodded in response to Blaine's suggestion and kept looking for the missing belt.

"Wait… am I in trouble?" Rian asked, confused.

"Not yet. But if you don't get your room cleaned up this week you will be," Blaine explained, continuing to try and figure out where the boy's belt had gone.

"What happens if I get in trouble?"

"We'll take away your tablet and your TV privileges. Depending on how serious it is, we might even ground you."

"But you wouldn't hit me?" Rian asked. Blaine stopped, turning to look at Rian who looked worried.

"We will _never_ hit you," Blaine replied, walking over to Rian and pulling him into a hug. "That part of your life is over… we have no intention of ever doing anything to hurt you, and that includes physical punishments." Blaine pressed a kiss onto the top of Rian's head. "Now we either have to find that belt, or steal some string from the junk drawer because we're going to be late to school if we don't hurry."

"For future reference, Rian, belts don't belong in the laundry basket," Kurt commented, walking into the room holding up a pair of dirty jeans with Rian's belt still through the belt loops. Blaine shook his head, smiling at his husband and taking the belt off the pants to pass to Rian.

"Hurry up and finish getting ready… we need to leave in five minutes if we want to make it in time." Blaine hurried back to his office, doing his best to make sure that everything he needed was already in his bag. "I'm forgetting something…" Blaine muttered; something was nagging at the back of his mind, and he couldn't quite figure out exactly _what_ the problem was.

"Shoes, Blaine. You're forgetting your shoes," Kurt commented. Blaine glanced, down at his feet, shaking his head and smiling over at his husband.

"I think I would lose my head if it wasn't for you," Blaine replied, picking up his bag to rush over to the bedroom and grab his shoes. He paused just long enough to a quick kiss for his husband, before the taller man went back to the kitchen for reasons unknown to Blaine. It only took Blaine a minute to slide on a pair of shoes and rush back out into the living area of the apartment, where Kurt put a bagel and a travel mug of coffee into his hands.

"Breakfast, because I'm pretty sure you forgot about it," Kurt commented. Blaine smiled, leaning in and pressing a kiss against Kurt's lips.

"You're wonderful."

"I know. I have a bagel and a mug of hot chocolate for Rian, too. And he needs to eat it so that he can take his meds," Kurt replied. Blaine started eating his breakfast as he waited for Rian to finish getting everything together.

"C'mon, Rian, we've got to get going!" Blaine called after a moment. Thankfully the boy hurried out of the bedroom at that moment, getting the two of them out the door just in time to make it to the school without having to run. Blaine took Rian's travel mug and violin as the boy rushed to his first class, taking everything into his classroom and sitting down at his desk for his planning period.

"You were cutting it close this morning." Blaine looked up at the sound of a familiar voice, smiling.

"Rian's still a little slow in the morning. How was your break, Jill?"

"Boring… my parents were out of town as usual, and I actually didn't have anything to do the whole three weeks. How was the first Christmas with a kid?" Blaine shrugged as Jill sat down in one of the empty orchestra chairs.

"Strange. But kind of nice. Kurt's parents came in from Ohio and we had the whole family celebration at our place for the first time. He freaked out a little bit about the whole idea of presents…"

"Not that surprising given his past," Jill replied. Blaine nodded.

"We just weren't really prepared for that. Or the fact that he isn't actually a citizen…"

"What?" Jill interrupted. It was obvious that she hadn't been expecting a curveball like that any more than they had.

"His birth certificate's fake… we didn't know until the day after Christmas, actually. But he's safe for the moment, at least until they determine whether or not he has any family in Ireland. Until then we have the social worker and our lawyer working on making sure that Rian gets to stay in the country and figuring out what that means for our chances of being able to adopt him," Blaine replied.

"Surely the length of time he's been in the country means something… I thought it was only seven years that people were required to wait to become citizens…"

"Rian's not here legally… the fact that he's been here for almost twelve years doesn't really mean anything." Blaine shook his head, sighing. "It's just another hoop to jump through. One of many we still haven't gotten to yet."

"It'll work out if it's meant to. And I have a feeling that it's meant to be… after all, why would he have been put into your path right at that moment if you weren't supposed to be there for him when he needs someone the most?"

"I hope you're right. I know that a lot of adoption attempts don't pan out, but I want it to – for his sake as much as for ours," Blaine replied.


	25. Fast Forward

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So, this chapter jumps forward a bit because I don't really know or understand all of the legalities that would be involved in this situation. Plus I've had this idea in my head for a while, and I finally decided that it was time for me to write this one up and move on with the story. Don't hate me, okay?**

"C'mon, Rian… family meeting before Kurt has to leave for the theatre…" Rian sighed as Blaine shook him awake, stretching until his hands touched the bunk above his own and he could press against it to stretch out some of his muscles a bit better.

"Where's Max?" he asked, realizing that the top bunk was empty.

"In the living room, working on speech stuff with Kurt," Blaine replied. "It's almost noon… you've slept most of the day." Rian nodded, yawning. "I think you're about to start growing on us again…" Rian got up and followed Blaine out to the table, where Max and Kurt were already seated. "Lily, come sit at the table with us so we can talk."

Rian sat down at his usual place around the table, smiling as Max climbed into his lap. Rian loved the little six-year-old; it had been strange when he'd first come, nine months after Rian, but they'd gotten used to each other – especially once Lily, who was nine, came four months later and they were forced into sharing a room. And even though Rian felt strange when he thought about the fact that their adoptions were finalized and his was still pending, he'd discovered that he really liked having siblings.

"So… we have some really good news," Blaine said, sitting down in one of the empty chairs.

"Two pieces of good news, actually," Kurt added. Rian raised an eyebrow as the men turned to look at him, smiling.

"We got a call this morning from Nadia… we have a court date in ten days to finalize Rian's adoption." Rian couldn't help smiling and hugging Max a little tighter at the news. "It's only about two years later than we originally thought, but at least it's finally happening."

"So it's going to be official now? I'm going to be your son?"

"Yes… finally!" Kurt replied. "We also have some news that affects the whole family… you all remember that I had an audition in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago?"

"You got the movie?" Lily asked.

"I got the movie, yes," Kurt replied. "Which means that we're going to move to California for at least a year. We aren't leaving for a couple of weeks, but we all need to start packing and going through things now so that we aren't rushed."

"Grandma Carole's going to come stay with the three of you for a while, so I can go out to LA and find us somewhere to live while Papa Kurt finishes up his run with the show," Blaine added.

"But I want to go with you, Daddy!" Max replied.

"I know, Max. But I need you to stay here and help Rian clean out your room while I'm gone, so that we don't move a lot of stuff that we don't need or want anymore."

"Is there anything you all specifically want Daddy Blaine to look for?"

"I'd like my own bedroom…" Rian began. "I love Max, but it'd be nice to have some space to myself."

"My own bathroom," Lily added.

"A pool!"

"I second Max's suggestion," Rian replied, bouncing his little brother slightly.

"Okay… so bedrooms for everyone, at least three bathrooms, and a pool. I think we can make that happen," Blaine replied with a smile. "Kurt, you need to get your stuff together if you're going to make it to the theatre for your call time."

Rian let Max go, and Max and Lily both went to their rooms leaving Rian alone with the two men that had taken him in almost two and a half years earlier.

"Since Kurt got the job in LA… can we reopen the discussion about Dalton?" Rian asked, not moving from his place at the table. "It doesn't have to be right now, because I know you need to go to the theatre. But I'd like to talk about it again, if it's a possibility now." Rian hadn't really expected the shocked looks on Kurt and Blaine's face.

"You really liked Dalton…" Rian nodded.

"I definitely think that if it's something you want, we should look into it some more," Blaine replied. Rian bit down on his bottom lip, glancing at Kurt.

"Our priorities are to make sure that you're happy and safe. So we need to look into this idea some more and talk about it as a family. We'll talk about it tomorrow, on my day off, okay?"

"Okay." Rian nodded, smiling as Kurt pressed a kiss on top of his head.

"I can't believe we're about to _finally_ be able to call you our son."

"We've been waiting way too long for this to happen," Blaine added, walking over and putting his arm around Rian, too.

"I need to get going to the theatre… I love you, kiddo."

"I love you, too," Rian replied.

"Why don't you go make sure Max isn't getting into anything in your room that he shouldn't be? Maybe get him to start going through some of his toys and throw away some of the broken ones, if you can get him to focus long enough to get anything done."

"I'll do my best," Rian replied, walking back towards his room.

Rian was actually doing a pretty good job of getting Max to concentrate on going through his toy box when Blaine walked into their room. "Rian, do you think you could run get some milk? I'm in the middle of making lunch, and I just realized that we're out."

"Yeah, I can do that," Rian replied, standing up. "Hey, Max, why don't you put the toys we decided to keep back in the box, and show Daddy Blaine which ones you want to donate." Rian took the money Blaine handed him and started out of the apartment, taking the cell phone he'd been given for emergencies.

"'Sup, Fag." Rian did his best to ignore the boys that he vaguely recognized from school. He didn't want to get involved in anything with them; they were part of a small, narrow-minded group of people from the school that had a problem with his family, and Rian had gotten used to just ignoring all of the abuse they threw at him whenever they saw him. He'd gotten a lot worse from his father, and their words weren't going to hurt him.

Rian winced as he felt someone push him into the brick wall of the building he had been walking next to. "We're talking to you, Fag!" Rian put up his hands, shaking his head.

"I don't want any trouble… I just want to go buy some milk and go home." Rian winced as he heard one of the boys laughing and the sound of something metal clanging against the brick façade.

"It's not that simple, Fag…"


	26. Agony

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I tried to write this as quickly as possible, so that you all wouldn't be left waiting for too long. It's not my best work, but I always have a bit of difficulty with scenes such as this.**

There was pain. Blinding, agonizing pain. The kind Rian hadn't known in two and a half years, not since his father had been arrested and he'd been taken in by Blaine and Kurt.

"Son, can you hear me?" Rian opened his eyes slowly, whimpering at the brightness of the light.

"W-what…?" Rian began. Even the sound of his own voice seemed too loud in his head. It was as if his head was exploding with every syllable.

"You've been mugged. The ambulance is on its way…" Rian started trying to move, but pain shot through his leg as soon as he tried to move. "Just stay still for me, kid… they worked you over pretty badly."

"My phone…"

"I think they took it. Who do you want me to call?" the man asked.

"M-my dads…"

"What's the number?" Rian recited it slowly, struggling to remember. "Okay… my wife is going to call and let them know what's going on, and she'll tell them where to meet you."

"It hurts…" Rian began, closing his eyes.

"I know, kid… just stay with me, okay? Talk to me. What's your name?"

"Rian."

"Tell me about your family, Rian… do you have any siblings?"

"Little brother and sister… Max and Lily. I was supposed to be adopted next week…"

"And you will be. You're going to be fine… my wife and I will stay here with you until the ambulance comes to take you to the hospital, and she's getting your dad to meet you there. You may be in a cast, but you'll make it to the courtroom, okay?" Rian could hear the sound of sirens approaching, but he wasn't sure that they were for him until he could see the red and blue lights bouncing off a nearby window and a police officer was kneeling over him talking into a radio about needing a "bus" – which didn't make sense to Rian, because what he actually needed was an ambulance because he couldn't move.

"His name's Rian… my wife's on the phone with his dad right now," the man that had been with him was explaining.

"Rian, can you tell me what happened?" the officer asked.

"I was going to get milk… we were out, and it's all Max will drink…"

"Did you see who did this to you?"

"It… it was some guys from school. Th-they called me…" Rian couldn't bring himself to actually say the word; it was too offensive, and he hated it. "They were calling me a name, because my dads are gay… I was just ignoring them, but they pushed me up against the wall. I just wanted to go to the store and get the milk…" Rian closed his eyes, trying to comprehend what was going on. He didn't remember details of what had happened – he wasn't really sure that he'd even known what was going on as it happened. "Where's my dad… where's Blaine?"

"He's going to meet you at the hospital, sweetie." Rian opened his eyes as he heard the man's wife speaking to him. "He's getting one of the neighbors to watch your brother and sister, and he's going to meet you there."

"Rian, can you give me any names? How many boys were there?"

"I… I don't really know them. I've just seen them at school before… it's always the same three. They always call me that…" Rian could hear another, different siren starting to approach. "I didn't want any trouble… I just wanted to go buy the milk for Max and go home."

"I know, Rian. You didn't do anything wrong… you couldn't have stopped them if you'd tried, okay? Don't blame yourself." Rian closed his eyes again as the police officer spoke, whimpering in pain. "The ambulance is almost here, okay? It's just going to be a little bit longer."

"I don't want to move… it's going to hurt…"

"They have to get you to the hospital, Rian… you need x-rays and stitches, and probably some antibiotics. It's the only way to make sure that you're going to be okay." Rian wanted so much to fall asleep, but he'd had enough concussions in his life to know that it was a bad idea. He could hear the police officer discussing him with the paramedics as they walked up to the scene.

"Rian, what hurts?" the female paramedic asked.

"My left leg… my head…" Rian could feel a plastic collar being fitted around his neck.

"Okay… we're going to get you stabilized and get you to the hospital," she replied. "We're going to splint your leg first, and then we'll put you on a backboard and move you onto the stretcher to go to the hospital."

"It's going to hurt…" Rian began.

"Yeah, it will. But we're going to do everything we can to make this bearable. I'm going to start an IV and give you something to help with the pain. It's not going to take it away, but it's going to help you get through this until we can get you to the hospital, okay?"

"Okay," Rian replied. He winced as the needle slid into his arm at the same time as one of the other paramedics started working on stabilizing his leg. His first reaction was to try and grip onto something, but he only succeeded in scraping a layer or two of skin off his fingertips. "Please… it hurts…"

"I know, Rian. The sooner we can get you to the hospital, the sooner we can make you more comfortable."

"Rian!" Rian wanted to turn his head to look at Blaine as he heard the man's voice, but he couldn't really move. "Please… that's my son…"

"Dad!" It only took a moment for Blaine to get to him, and Rian smiled at the familiar face.

"Oh, buddy… I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have sent you out for milk…" Rian couldn't help squeezing Blaine's hand, thankful to have something to hold onto because the pain was too much.

Things were kind of a blur for Rian as the paramedics started loading him onto a backboard and then onto the stretcher to be taken to the hospital. He was in so much pain he couldn't focus on anything else.

"Can I ride along?" Blaine asked as they started moving Rian towards the ambulance.

"Of course… you just have to stay out of the way if anything happens and let us do our job…"

"Of course."


	27. The Waiting Game

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: I… don't really have anything to say here.**

Kurt couldn't help pacing back and forth across the hospital waiting room. He was terrified; they had gone more than two years without any really major trips to the hospital – since Rian's second surgery for his ulcers, he'd been healthy. And neither Max nor Lily had come down with anything worse than a bad cold in the time they had been with their family. So this… this was horrible.

"I can't believe we let this happen…" Kurt whispered as Blaine finally wrapped his arms around Kurt's torso to stop him from pacing so much.

"We didn't _let_ anything happen… it's this city. It's those boys, their parents… people that refuse to believe that our family can be real and healthy and exactly what a family is _supposed_ to be." Kurt sighed as Blaine pressed a kiss against his forehead.

"I just want to know that he's okay… I want them to call or come out of here or _something_ and tell us that he's going to be okay."

"I know…" Blaine replied. "God, I felt like such a failure… seeing him like that. It was my job to protect him. They were kids from _school_… I was supposed to be there to protect him not only as a parent, but as a teacher, too. I knew there were kids calling him names, and I did everything I could to stop that at school. But I couldn't stop it… not when it counted."

"Is anyone here for Rian O'Casey?" a woman in scrubs asked, walking through the double doors that Blaine and Kurt had alternated staring at and trying to ignore for the past few hours.

"We are," Blaine replied. "I'm Blaine Anderson, and this is my husband, Kurt Hummel. We're Rian's foster parents."

"I'm Dr. Carsey, Rian's surgeon. They're moving him into the recovery room right now… once he's waking up a bit, we'll move him into the ICU for the night."

"ICU?" Kurt spoke up.

"I want to keep a close eye on him, at least until tomorrow morning. His blood pressure dropped towards the end of surgery… he's doing okay at the moment, but I'm sure you'd agree it's better to keep him where we can keep an eye on the situation until we're sure he's okay."

"Of course," Blaine replied, nodding.

"Whatever you think we need to do," Kurt added.

"I'm going to tell you now, his recovery is going to be rough. They did a number on his leg, and it's going to be a while before he can put any weight on it."

"But he's going to be okay, right?" Blaine asked.

"With time and physical therapy, he should be. But as he gets older he may have problems, especially with that knee. We'll also have to keep an eye on his growth… there were fractures in and around the growth plates at his knee, and there's a possibility that the healing process could disrupt the growth of his left leg. If we don't keep on top of it, it could cause other problems in the future."

"Such as?" Kurt asked. He wanted to know exactly what they were looking at in Rian's future.

"Scoliosis, for one. Back and knee pain. Added stress on his joints. Which is why we need to keep on top of it, before there's a problem." Kurt smiled slightly as he felt the woman put a hand on his shoulder. "We can't make this painless for him, but we can at least try to keep it from being worse than it has to be."

"When can we see him?" Blaine asked.

"As soon as he's settled in back in recovery, a nurse will come get you. It shouldn't be more than a few minutes now. He won't really be awake for a while, but at least you'll be able to see him and stay with him for a little while." Kurt nodded as the doctor's pager started going off.

"Thank you, Doctor."

"I'll be around to check on him pretty regularly the next few days, if you have any more questions," she replied, before hurrying off. Kurt sighed, leaning his head so that his forehead was pressed against his husband's.

"It kills me that everything has to be so fucked up for Rian… he's been through enough already." Kurt nodded, leaning in and pressing a kiss against Blaine's lips.

"I'm not sure how much more he can take. To be beaten nearly to death, first by his biological father and then by a group of homophobes just because he's living with us… it's like he can't catch a break."

"Things will change. We'll leave the city… we won't bring them back, not to this neighborhood. God, I'll even agree to sending him to Dalton, if that will keep him safe. And you know how much I hate the idea of sending him away…"

"Mr. Anderson? Mr. Hummel?" Kurt turned at the sound of another female voice addressing them. "He's settled in… if you'd like to go see him now."

"Please," Kurt replied, nodding. He took Blaine's hand as they followed the nurse back through the double doors, down a wide corridor and around a few turns until they reached a room full of beds with curtains around them. She lead them towards the back of the room, where a curtain was pulled all the way around one of the beds.

"He looks worse than he really is…" the woman began.

"We know," Blaine replied, smiling at her. "Thank you." Kurt pushed the edge of the curtain back, letting Blaine in first and walking up to the opposite side of Rian's bed so that they were on either side of the boy. He was pale beneath the bruises, almost as white as the bandages covering the surgical incisions on his leg. There wasn't a cast, but there were pillows keeping his leg still and slightly elevated to help prevent it from swelling further. Kurt was just thankful there were fewer wires and tubes this time.

"He actually doesn't look that bad," Kurt replied. "A little pale, but definitely not as sick as he did with the other surgeries."

"At least there's no fever or infection to deal with now. It's just managing pain this time around, and keeping him off that leg while it heals." Kurt reached down and into the covers, gently searching for the boy's hand as he watched Blaine take the other one. "God… I'm leaving for LA in two days. Right when I _need_ to be here the most."

"Carole's flying in tomorrow morning, and I only have a couple more nights of the show left. We can handle it… besides, you're only going to be gone for a couple of days, just long enough to find us a rental until we can sell the apartment. It's not like you have to worry about buying a house out there yet."

"I just hate the idea of leaving him… especially when he's like this. I've been here for everything else…"

"I know. But he'll be okay… it's not like you're leaving him with strangers or anything. Carole and I can handle it while you're gone. It'll make things more difficult, but we'll manage."


	28. Boredom and Future Plans

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: So I'm kind of starting to wrap this one up. Not to fear, though! I have an idea for a pseudo-sequel… it's based on this idea, but not exactly the same because I want to do a next-generation Daltonverse fic and so the ages are going to be somewhat different (because I actually need to make Kurt and Blaine old enough to have a kid Rian's age so that the other Dalton boys can have sons at the school!). So yeah… I think there's only going to be a couple more chapters to this one, but I'm not sure exactly when it'll end just yet. Enjoy!**

Rian hated being stuck in bed. It was probably the worst feeling in the world, given the fact that he felt so useless. While the rest of the family was rushing around trying to go through their belongings and pack and everything, he was forced to stay in bed. He could really only do things that didn't involve much movement.

"I'm bored. And I'm sick of not being able to do anything…" Rian muttered as Carole and Max worked on finishing up Max's toybox and bookshelf. Somehow that task had been forgotten when Rian had ended up in the hospital.

"I know, sweetie. I wish I could give you something to do, but the only things I know of would require you to be up too long on that leg," Carole replied. Rian sighed, knowing that she was right. "Besides, we're about to stop packing for the day… your dads should be on their way home from the airport by now, and I think everyone is going to bed early tonight so that we don't oversleep in the morning… it's a big day."

"What's tomorrow, Grammy?" Max asked. Rian smiled at the fact that his little brother had already forgotten. Not that Rian blamed him; with everything that had happened, he was kind of surprised that anyone remembered what was going to happen the next day.

"Tomorrow we're all going to court to sign the papers for Rian's adoption, remember?"

"I'm finally going to be your big brother officially," Rian replied. "You're stuck with me for life after tomorrow." Rian could tell that Max was confused.

"But… you're already my big brother…"

"Not officially… you know how Daddy Blaine and Papa Kurt adopted you last year? They've been fighting for a long time so that they could do the same thing for Rian, and they're just now getting the chance."

"But he's been here longer…" Max began.

"Sometimes there are problems that come up when parents try to adopt kids. And there were a lot of problems with Rian's adoption, and it's taken a long time for your daddies and Nadia and the lawyer to work through all of those problems so that they could make Rian a member of the family officially."

"So you're not my brother?" Max asked, turning to Rian.

"Of course I'm your brother… tomorrow's just something that has to happen so that we'll be brothers forever," Rian replied. He smiled as Max ran over towards the bed he was sitting on, climbing up and carefully avoiding the gigantic cast that was keeping his broken leg still to wrap his arms around Rian's neck for a hug. Rian pulled him closer, squeezing Max a little harder than he normally would have.

"I love you, Rian."

"I love you, too, Max." Rian let go of the boy just as he heard the front door opening, smiling as he realized that Blaine and Kurt were home. "You go ahead… I'll catch up, okay?"

Rian watched as Max ran out of the room to greet their dads, before he reached down for his crutches to get up out of the bed. "Let me help you, sweetie," Carole commented.

"I've got it," Rian said, shaking his head as he slowly moved his leg off the bed and pulled himself to his feet. It was kind of difficult to keep his weight completely off his left leg, but he was getting better at it. The worst part was that he still wasn't doing so well at balancing the cast just yet.

"Let me know if you need some help, sweetie… I don't want you to fall or hurt yourself," Carole commented. Rian nodded, slowly making his way towards the door.

"Shouldn't you be in bed, buddy?" Kurt asked as soon as Rian came into his line of vision.

"I don't want to eat dinner in bed again… I want to sit out here with everyone else. I miss family dinners," Rian replied as Blaine walked over to give him a hug.

"Couch, leg up," he instructed. Rian nodded and continued slowly making his way into the living room. "You look like you're doing pretty well on those crutches… how are you feeling?"

"Bored, mostly. The painkillers help a lot, but the cast makes it hard to move much," Rian replied as he finally made it to the couch and slowly pulled the large cast up onto the couch. He smiled at Carole as she brought pillows over to help him prop it up. "Thanks."

"Lily, why don't you set the table while we wait for dinner to get here? I hope Chinese is okay… we need to get to bed early, because tomorrow's a special day," Kurt suggested.

"I'll help you with that." Carole walked into the kitchen to help Lily get the dishes out of the cabinet.

"Max, why don't you and I go figure out what we have that you can wear to the courthouse tomorrow?" Rian smiled as Kurt and Max left the room and Blaine walked over to him, sitting down on the coffee table next to him.

"So, how are you doing? With the court thing and all that?" Rian shrugged, smiling slightly.

"I'm still worried. That something might go wrong, and that it won't work out. It seems like every time something good has happened or almost happened, it's gotten screwed up somehow." Rian was starting to have a hard time keeping his emotions in check; to tell the truth, the more he thought about what was going to happen the next day the more terrified he got that things would go horribly wrong. He wasn't all that surprised when Blaine reached out to take his hand.

"This isn't going to go wrong. This is _final_. The judge has already decided that we can adopt you, and this court date is just the final hoop we have to jump through so that we can sign the paperwork and make it official."

"You're sure?" Rian turned to look at the man. After two and a half years, Rian could tell when they were telling him the truth.

"I'm positive." Rian smiled, nodding because he knew that Blaine was serious. "I know Kurt wanted to talk to you about this with me, but I feel like you need to hear this now. We've been discussing Dalton ever since you brought it up, and we've decided that if it's still something you want to do we're going to let you." Rian hadn't been expecting that news. "Right now, if everything goes well the cast will come off a couple of weeks before school starts. We've already gotten it worked out for someone to take you to physical therapy for the first few weeks, and we've already spoken to the nurse and headmaster about what kind of help you might need until that leg heals properly."

"I wish I could get up and jump over there to hug you…" Rian began with a smile. "Thank you."

"We want you to be happy. And if you think that going to Dalton is what will make you happy, then we'll do whatever we can to make that happen for you."


	29. Finally a Family

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: Aaand… a little bit of drama. Not enough to screw things up, but things can't be 100% perfect all the time…**

Kurt smiled as he straightened Rian's tie. "You're ready for this?"

"I've never been more ready for anything in my life." Kurt sat down on the edge of the bench they had found for Rian, carefully avoiding the cast. "Thank you."

"You don't have to thank us, Rian. We wanted a child more than anything else, and we were lucky to find you."

"But you didn't have to agree to take _me_. I know I was older than what you were really looking for…" Kurt shook his head.

"Doesn't matter."

"Most people wouldn't have been willing to take me… and no one else would have fought so hard to adopt me, not after everything…"

"That was the point, Rian," Blaine said, walking over and kneeling down next to him. Kurt nodded. "We wanted to prove to you that you were worth something… that you weren't the problem in the relationship with your dad. And mostly that we love you."

"You're one of the best things that's ever happened to us, buddy. You and Max and Lily are _so_ important to us." Kurt couldn't help but smile at the way Rian started tearing up, reaching out and pulling Max and Lily towards them. He couldn't help being proud of how much the little boy they had taken in two and a half years earlier had blossomed.

"Group hug?" Rian asked. Kurt nodded, putting one arm around Rian and the other around Blaine's shoulders.

"I take it this means that you guys are ready for your appointment with the judge?" Kurt looked up, smiling and nodding at the bailiff that had walked out of the courtroom.

"We're ready."

* * *

><p>It seemed almost surreal to be walking out of the courtroom, paperwork in hand. "It's official now… we're a family. All of us," Blaine commented. Kurt smiled, wrapping an arm around his husband's waist.<p>

"Are we going to go out to eat? That's what we did after my adoption…" Lily commented.

"We're going to wait on that, actually," Kurt replied. "We don't want Rian to be up on his leg too much today, so Grandma Carole is cooking a special lunch for all of us today, and once we get out to LA next week we'll all go out for a family dinner to celebrate Rian's adoption."

"But we always do dinner…" Max began.

"We will next week, buddy. There's a lot to do between now and when we leave for LA, and we don't really have time for that right now. But as soon as we get settled in at the new house in LA, Rian will get the chance to pick out a restaurant for us to go eat at," Blaine replied. Kurt put an arm around Lily's shoulders as Blaine picked Max up so that they could head towards the elevators. It was slow going with Rian still on crutches, but it at least gave them all some time to talk about what was going to happen over the next few days.

"Our plane leaves in two days… and we have to have the whole apartment packed up for the movers before then, because if it isn't packed they aren't going to put it on the truck," Kurt replied.

"It'll just be easier on everyone if we put off dinner until we're settled in. This morning's been kind of stressful already and Rian needs to get off that leg."

"So… are you guys all happy now that we've gotten all of these adoptions finished?" Kurt asked.

"Can the next adoption be another girl?" Lily asked. "I don't want to be the only girl…"

"Being the only girl makes you even more special, though," Rian replied. "You're also the only granddaughter… you're everyone's princess, at least until Aunt Rachel has another baby."

"I'd still like to have a sister."

"We'll think about it, okay? We need to get settled in California before we think about another adoption," Kurt replied, squeezing his daughter's shoulder as they got onto the elevator and using his free hand to keep the doors from closing on Rian.

"So, Max and Lily… we wanted to talk to the two of you about what's going to happen when school starts," Blaine began as the elevator slowly made its way down towards the ground floor of the building. Kurt glanced at Blaine, raising an eyebrow because they had originally planned on waiting until they were home to have this conversation with the other kids. "You remember that we took Rian to Ohio a few months ago to look at a boarding school that Papa Kurt and I went to…"

"You're sending Rian away?" Lily asked. Kurt shook his head as the girl looked up at him in horror.

"No, we're not. Rian _asked_ if he could go to Dalton. We looked into it, and we agreed to let him go as long as he's happy," Kurt explained.

"I really liked Dalton… it's a good school, and I won't have to worry about stupid people that don't understand our family." Kurt nodded.

"We're still going to be a family, and Rian will be coming home every break and holiday that we aren't in Ohio with Grandpa Burt and Grandma Carole. And we're going to be able to video chat with him every week," Blaine added.

"It's not like I'll be disappearing or anything… I just won't be coming home every night or every week."

"I don't want you to leave us…" Kurt looked over at Max, who was burying his face in Blaine's collar as if he was going to cry.

"I don't want to leave _you_, Max. Or any of you. But I feel like Dalton is where I'm supposed to be right now… I want to be challenged, and I don't want to feel like I have to watch my back all the time to avoid getting hurt like this again."

"But I want my big brother!" Kurt sighed, watching as Rian held out his arms for Max to go to him but the little boy refused.

"You're going to have me all summer, buddy. And you can call me every night if you want to… I'll always be there when you need me. But this is what I need to do right now," Rian tried to explain. Kurt could tell that Max had shut down and wasn't willing to listen to what any of them were saying.

"Why don't we talk about this when we get home? I don't think it's going to do us any good to discuss this here."


	30. A New Chapter

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Glee, or any of the characters that appear on the show. This is just me playing around with them for our mutual entertainment.

**A/n: Wow… I can't believe I've finished this story! There will be a new one at some point in the future – I'm working on the Daltonverse sequel for this story, but it's going to take some time because I want to do Mama's characters proud through their sons! I know I dropped some ideas that I started out with, but it needed to be done so that I could get where I wanted to be with this story. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this final chapter!**

Rian couldn't help but stare out the window of the back seat, smiling as they finally drove up to the imposing brick structure that was Dalton Academy. As excited as he was to finally be here, he was also nervous about being away from his new family for the first time. It didn't help that Max was already starting to pout in the middle seat before they had even gotten out of the car.

"Max, remember we talked about this… you can call me every single night if you want," Rian commented, putting an arm around the little boy's shoulders. "I don't want you to be sad…"

"Then don't go… I want you to stay in California, with us…"

"I know you do, buddy… but I _need_ to be here. Besides, I'll see you at the first Parents Weekend next month, right? You're going to come with Daddy Blaine so we can celebrate my birthday?"

"But I want to do pancakes for breakfast for your birthday, like we always do…"

"We can do that here, with Grandpa Burt and Grandma Carole on Saturday morning," Rian replied as they finally pulled into a parking space. He opened the door, climbing out slowly. He was still having some trouble with his leg – enough that he was still using the crutches because his leg was too weak to carry his weight. The bright red surgical scars that peeked out from underneath the cargo shorts he wore didn't really help things, either, because they were yet another reminder of exactly what had happened that had convinced Kurt and Blaine that this was a good idea. Rian smiled as Kurt handed him his backpack and the crutches, which he immediately started using so that he could step away from the car and let Max get out.

"Max, why don't you walk with Rian to go check in?" Blaine suggested. Rian smiled, but the little boy just shrugged. Rian leaned over so that he was face to face with his little brother.

"Hey… I have a pack of M'n'Ms in my backpack… I'll split them with you if you'll walk with me," Rian whispered, hoping that Kurt and Blaine wouldn't overhear. Max didn't get candy very often because he was a little hyperactive, but Rian figured that they could always let him run around the large grassy area surrounding the school for a little while to work off all the sugar.

"Follow the balloons… and Rian, don't give him _too_ many of those M'n'Ms. I don't want to have to chase him all over this campus so that he'll sleep tonight," Kurt commented, smiling. Rian nodded, starting towards the white tables that were set up across the lawn near the entrance to the school. He wasn't all that surprised by the fact that his dads and Lily had caught up with them by the time he got to the line. Rian was thankful that it wasn't that long; he could feel people looking at him, wondering what the story was with the crutches.

"Name?" the woman sitting behind the table asked.

"Anderson-Hummel."

"Rian?" she asked, looking up as she pulled out a folder. "This is your orientation packet. There's a map of campus, a schedule of the orientation events taking place this weekend, and your class schedule as well as some basic information about policies and procedures. Lunches will be provided in the cafeteria at noon, and your room assignment is on the label on the front. And here's the key for your dorm room." Rian nodded, smiling as he pocketed the little envelope that held his key and he handed the folder to Kurt.

"Thank you." Rian started to follow his dads into the dormitory building.

"So, you're on the first floor… which is probably a good thing, since you're still on crutches," Kurt commented, as they walked towards Rian's room with all of his stuff.

"I won't be on crutches forever…" Rian began.

"No, but you're going to be using them until you get some of the strength back in that leg and you don't need to try to do too much. We don't want you to hurt yourself trying to do too much," Blaine replied. Rian nodded as Kurt started through a door on their right.

"It doesn't look like your roommate's here yet… which bed do you want?" Rian looked around the room – which was almost twice the size of the room he and Max had shared in New York – in awe.

"I only have _one_ roommate here?"

"That's usually the case. Prefects are pretty much the only ones that get rooms to themselves, unless there's an uneven number of boarding students or there's some kind of issue," Blaine replied. Rian looked around the room, finally deciding to take the bed to his left, which was a little further from the door.

"I think I'm going to take this one… hopefully it'll be a little quieter being further from the hall…"

"There are ear plugs in your backpack just in case," Kurt replied. Rian nodded, dropping his backpack on the bed before he made his way over to the dresser to start unpacking his clothes.

With everyone working together, Rian's stuff was mostly unpacked before his roommate, Keith, even got there. It was a little awkward at first, because Keith's parents seemed a little uncomfortable with Kurt and Blaine, but thankfully it didn't last long. But it didn't make things any easier, as the moment Rian had been dreading all week finally approached – the moment his family would have to leave without him.

Rian picked Max up as soon as lunch was over, pulling the boy into his lap and hugging him close. "I'm going to miss you, buddy…"

"Can't I stay here? There's room for another bed in Rian's room…" Max began, looking over at Kurt and Blaine. Rian sighed, knowing that Max was going to be upset very soon.

"I'm sorry, Max, but you have to go back to California with us… you'll see Rian soon." Rian couldn't help being sad about the fact that his little brother was burying his face against Rian's chest, his grip tightening into Rian's tee shirt. Rian pulled a pen out of his bag, gently untangling his brother's fingers from one side of his shirt so that he could write something across the boy's forearm.

"It'll be Parents Weekend and my birthday before you know it… we'll get to spend the whole weekend together then. Plus we have Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up in a few months, too," Rian replied.

"I don't want to leave you…"

"You aren't leaving me, buddy… and you know that Daddy and Papa will let you call me every night if you want to. I'll answer my phone ever night for you, okay? Look, you even have my phone number on your hand so you won't forget it…" Rian watched as the boy looked down at his hand. "See? That's my new phone number, so that you can call me whenever you need to talk."

"Any time I want?" Max asked.

"Within reason… remember, I have to go to school, and so do you. But at night, before you go to bed, we can talk." Rian smiled as Max nodded, letting go of him.

"Okay. But you promised."

"Do I _ever_ break my promises to you?" Max shook his head. "Exactly."

"We need to get going… we have a plane to catch tonight," Blaine commented, glancing at his watch. Rian stood up, still holding Max until Kurt took him.

"C'mere, buddy… you can give Rian another hug when we get to the car, but he can't carry you there." Rian followed his dads out to the car. Lily and Max gave him hugs first, before they climbed into the back seat of the car and left him standing there between his dads.

"Call us if you need anything, okay? Or call Dad or Carole if it's an emergency," Kurt said. Rian could feel a little wet spot growing on the shoulder of his shirt as the man hugged him.

"I know, Kurt…"

"And don't forget that Carole's going to pick you up on Tuesday for your first appointment with the physical therapist here in town. You can't afford to miss this, okay?" Rian nodded as Blaine moved to hug him as well.

"We love you, buddy."

"I love you, too," Rian replied.

"We really have to go, Kurt," Blaine commented as he finally pulled away from the hug. Rian watched as his father nodded, trying his best to stop crying. "I'll see you in a few weeks for Parents Weekend, Rian." Rian nodded, backing away as his dads got into the car. He waved as they pulled away, before he turned around to face the building again.

"Let's do this."


End file.
